Electronic health records, or “EHRs,” are the future of medical record keeping. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or “ARRA,” includes incentive payments for hospitals that adopt an EHR, but the timetable for implementation is tight. To qualify for the full payment, hospitals will require proving “meaningful use” by October 2012.
To guide institutions,
ECRI Institute has published a Health Devices guidance article about what hospitals need to be doing. ECRI Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization that researches the best approaches to patient care, also emphasizes the need for hospitals to report EHR problems through a centralized
Problem Reporting System.
Currently, only about 9 percent of the nation's hospitals utilize some type of EHR. And the majority of those hospitals have implemented only the basic system.
“That's not enough to be in compliance with the new standards or to warrant any incentive payment,” said Jason Launders, MSc, lead author of the article and senior medical physicist at ECRI Institute.
The part of ARRA containing the EHR provisions includes Medicare and Medicaid incentives, which may total almost half of what it costs to implement an EHR system, will be awarded to hospitals that achieve “meaningful use” of the system. Hospitals that do not implement an EHR within the designated timeline will receive penalties until they are in compliance.
“Our article clarifies what is known about the HITECH Act -- including details on how incentives will work -- to help hospitals make the right decisions about their EHR system,” Launders said. “Additionally, we outline 10 key action steps that hospitals should follow to carefully select an EHR system, and do it quickly enough to receive as much incentive money as they can.”
Four of ECRI Institute's recommended steps for successful EHR implementation to map out the existing workflow and clinical data flow at the organization, indentify the costs of paper information, and prepare existing medical records for transition to electronic records.
“The rapid pace of EHR adoption due to the government's incentives is likely to result in many unexpected problems,” said James Keller, Jr., vice president, Health Technology and Safety, ECRI Institute. “It is imperative for the hospitals to report these problems to qualified reporting institutions to help prevent them from becoming widespread.”
ECRI Institute has run a medical technology problem reporting system for over 40 years. In recent years, the system has expanded to include review and analysis of problems related to computer-based medical technologies like radiation therapy systems and EHRs.
“The submitted reports are investigated by our healthcare technology experts, who develop guidance to help hospitals prevent similar problems. It's a great way for hospitals to share their experiences and particularly the challenges with adopting new technologies like EHRs,” Keller said.
Anamika Singh is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Anamika's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Kelly McGuire
