A Quarter of Hospitals Made No EMR Progress

Electronic medical record technologies have taken over the health care industry, with a lot of attention given to adoption rates and using the technology in a meaningful way. However, a new report has revealed that a quarter of hospitals have made no progress.

HIMSS tracked progress of 4,811 hospitals over the last five years through the eight-stage EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) designed to measure a hospitals progress toward robust EMR implementation.

“While it is fairly common knowledge that the bulk of U.S. hospitals have been progressively moving toward advanced EMRAM stages, the unknown concerns the “pace” at which these organizations are moving,” Lorren Pettit, MBA, vice president of market research for HIMSS Analytics on the HIMSS site.

According to the HIMSS report, in the last five years 25% of hospitals have made no progress and 4% of hospitals have remained completely paper-based during that time.

The good news, though is that roughly 74% of hospitals have advanced at least one EMRAM stage in the last five years. And about half of those hospitals have actually advanced two or three stages with 20% advancing four or more stages in the last five years.

“There is much to celebrate about health IT during the last five years,” Pettit wrote. “Hospitals by and large have made great strides in advancing their EMR capabilities, yet there is a sizeable segment of the market that seems to be “stuck” in their EMR progression and is at risk of being left behind by the rest of the herd (of U.S. hospitals).”