While electronic health record adoption rates have been on a rise in the U.S., it still lags behind other developed countries, such as Netherlands and New Zealand, according to a HIT Consultant report.
The report outlines the following reasons for the lagging adoption rate in the U.S. These are:
1. Prior need for a unifying organization. The Office of the National Coordinator for Information Technology became a powerful unifying organization for boosting the adoption of health IT in the U.S. after the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health was passed in 2009. Many of the countries that ranked higher than the U.S. in EHR adoption already had their unifying organizations in place before 2009.
2. Need for use of Unique Patient Identifiers. Unique Patient Identifiers help make the location and identification process of patients across various EHRs more seamless. It has been found that higher-ranking countries use UPI's where as the U.S. does not.
3. Large geographical area to be covered. The countries with higher EHR adoption are smaller in size than the U.S. EHR adoption has to spread over a larger geographic area in America, as compared to other developed countries.
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The report outlines the following reasons for the lagging adoption rate in the U.S. These are:
1. Prior need for a unifying organization. The Office of the National Coordinator for Information Technology became a powerful unifying organization for boosting the adoption of health IT in the U.S. after the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health was passed in 2009. Many of the countries that ranked higher than the U.S. in EHR adoption already had their unifying organizations in place before 2009.
2. Need for use of Unique Patient Identifiers. Unique Patient Identifiers help make the location and identification process of patients across various EHRs more seamless. It has been found that higher-ranking countries use UPI's where as the U.S. does not.
3. Large geographical area to be covered. The countries with higher EHR adoption are smaller in size than the U.S. EHR adoption has to spread over a larger geographic area in America, as compared to other developed countries.
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