About 60 percent of acute-care hospitals in the U.S. have at least a basic electronic health record system, and most hospitals could meet many requirements of meaningful use stage 2. However, just 5.8 percent of hospitals could meet all 15 stage 2 requirements, according to a study in Health Affairs.
Using data from the IT supplement to the American Hospital Association's annual survey, researchers analyzed hospitals' abilities to meet 15 of the 16 core requirements of meaningful use stage 2 (the AHA survey did not contain the necessary information to assess hospitals' ability to protect data gathered by EHRs, the 16th requirement).
The survey found most hospitals could meet at least some of the requirements of meaningful use stage 2 — for example, more than 90 percent of EHR users were able to electronically record patient demographics and smoking status. However, significantly fewer hospitals were able to provide summary of care documents for transitions or allow patients to view, download or transmit their record online. The results showed just 5.8 percent of hospitals could use their EHR to meet all 15 functionalities examined in the study.
"The stage 2 criteria ask hospitals to do several new things with their EHRs and the areas that are most challenging are those that require engaging patients, public health and other providers to a greater degree — groups that are outside the four walls of the hospital," said Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor and one of the study's authors.
These findings mirror data recently presented at a meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee. The attestation scores of the eight hospitals that had attested to meaningful use stage 2 as of May also showed the transitions of care and V/D/T requirements to be the most challenging for hospitals.
More articles on meaningful use stage 2:
EHRs: 50 things to know
Health IT vendors to ONC: MU3 too soon for mandated APIs, FHIR
Unique patient identifier ban to continue with latest spending bill