HIMSS Analytics released data last week from its survey of 687 hospitals that reveals almost 25 percent are meeting 10 or more of the 14 mandatory Stage 1 meaningful use criteria requirements. That’s great news.
Furthermore, 34 percent of the participating hospitals reported the ability to meet between five and nine of the core measures, and 40 percent said they have the ability to meet five or more of the 10 "menu" or additional measures for meaningful use.
No doubt those hospitals are chugging along and likely have the resources to qualify in 2011. We should applaud their long, hard-fought efforts to bring health IT into their practice of medicine. Who are these 25 percent of hospitals? I would guess right off the bat the big academic medical centers and large healthcare systems - in other words, the ones who have the upfront resources to tackle million-dollar, multi-year health IT initiatives and started years ago.
I'm assuming the bottom feeders, so to speak, are the community, rural and/or smaller hospitals that are at the start line of health IT adoption. To be fair, there are numerous small, resource-strapped hospitals that made health IT a priority and are quite advanced in their use. I've got to believe that they are a minority among their peers.
It's great to highlight the overall progress of the hospital market, but having 25 to 35 percent of these hospitals receive their federal incentive dollars and the rest of the market remain empty-handed means the digital divide is well and alive. Even 50 percent of achievement of Stage 1 meaningful use requirements is not meaningful for the industry as a whole at all. The less-endowed healthcare organizations are where the industry must focus its efforts and help in any way that it can.
Photo by Cindy Funk courtesy of Creative Commons license.
