The emergency department information system market – worth $110 million in 2010 – will grow by more than 30 percent in 2011 due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), according to Millennium Research Group.
ARRA funding will benefit the emergency department information systems the most in hospitals as facilities attempt to meet meaningful use requirements, researchers say.
US Markets for High-Acuity Information Systems 2011 discusses trends that will fuel and limit market growth for high-acuity information systems in the United States with coverage of emergency department, critical care and perioperative information systems.
HITECH Act, which is part of ARRA, included funding for more than $40 billion to drive the adoption of electronic health record systems, By providing incentive funding, facilities and physicians that normally would not be able to afford or be inclined to install an electronic health record would now have the means and motive of adopting one-those that do not face penalties in the form of reduced Medicare reimbursements beginning in 2015.
"The emergency department information systems market for small and medium hospitals will see the most growth through 2015, with revenues expanding at compound annual growth rates of approximately 9 percent and 19 percent, respectively," said Michelle Li, senior analyst at Millennium. "This is because many large hospitals have already adopted an electronic department information system. Larger facilities have always had a greater need for automation and more capital for purchasing these systems, so this market is fairly mature."
The ARRA incentive funding, she said, will encourage greater adoption in the largely under-penetrated small and medium hospital segments. Adoption of emergency department information systems by critical access hospitals – most of them smaller facilities – would also fuel growth in these segments because they have historically been under-funded and have fewer IT resources.
"Unit sales and revenues will therefore grow at a faster pace in these facilities compared to large hospitals," said Li.
