With Stage 2 of Meaningful Use right around the corner and interoperability of health IT systems heading the list of requirements, hospital executives are doing their very best to bring their organizations up to par, according to a survey conducted in January by HIMSS Analytics. Health information exchange and coordination of care are attracting major investments from the larger hospitals that took part in the poll, but frustrations over a lack of industry standardization and readiness are making it difficult to create as much momentum as the board rooms could hope.
“Many hospitals view interoperability as a key driver for their continued growth and ability to better serve their patients,” says the report, based on focus groups and interview with executives representing hospitals with more than 275 beds. “From an industry-wide perspective, most hospitals possess the tools they need to meet meaningful use Stage 2 criteria. Despite some significant hurdles and uncertainties, most of the participants had attested to Stage 1 criteria and expect to attest to Stage 2 criteria by the end of second quarter 2014 or during the first half of 2015.”
But even though the basic requirements of meaningful use may be in hand, true interoperability still eludes many. Some organizations are stymied by partners who haven’t implemented the infrastructure necessary to support robust health information exchange, while others complain that even their state-designated HIEs don’t yet have the capability to accept all of the data sets that the hospitals produce. “The state [HIE] cannot do anything with [continuity of care document (CCD)] information, yet it’s a requirement of meaningful use that we exchange them,” said one Midwestern hospital CIO. “Instead of buying an MRI, we are going to have to spend money on something that is not going to be used because we have to check off a box [under meaningful use criteria].”
Instead, some hospitals are focusing on private HIE projects that can be built to a local area’s specifications – and generate plenty of income for the owners of networks that expand from a central hospital system to encompass smaller providers or competing facilities. This may also lead to the consolidation of EHR vendor choices, the report adds, since hospitals and their satellite providers recognize that using a single vendor can speed the connection and data exchange process.
And if a valuable provider doesn’t want to pick the same vendor as its peers independently, there’s a good chance it may do so after being acquired. Health systems are getting larger and larger as facilities gobble each other up, banding together for financial sustainability that brings with it the chance for streamlined HIE, better care coordination, and less administrative overhead. “Three years ago, we had three clinics and now we have about 20,” said one IS director. “Most of these providers have come to us saying they want to join us. They want to get the meaningful use dollars, but they don’t want to deal with the headache of managing it.”
Overall, hospitals are committed to using health IT interoperability as a tool to provide better care for patients. The ability to make clinical decisions based on a complete record of a patient’s health is an important goal, and providers are doing their very best to get there. “With the ability to securely share patient information across the continuum of care, they will also be equipped to adopt new delivery and payment models and nimbly respond as the healthcare industry continues its transformation,” the report concludes. “Ultimately, what drives these initiatives, regardless of demographics of the healthcare market or size of the hospital or health system, is the focus on the patient.”
