HIMSS Analytics: 25 Percent of Hospitals Have Shown No EHR Progress

Even though the majority of hospitals have made progress toward implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), about one-quarter of them have failed to make any progress, according to a report from HIMSS Analytics, a division of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) provides an eight-stage framework for monitoring the development of a robust EMR system. First introduced into the market in 2006, HIMSS Analytics has been monitoring, on a quarterly basis, the array of hospitals amongst the various EMRAM stages. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment.

HIMSS Analytics staff recently analyzed the quarterly EMRAM progression of 4,811 hospitals during the last five years (Q2 2008 and Q2 2013). The vast majority of all U.S. hospitals (73.7 percent) have advanced at least one EMRAM stage during this period. Half of those organizations showing some advancement reflected a fairly progressive adoption posture advancing by two or three stages during this period, with another 20 percent assuming an aggressive EMR adoption pace, advancing four or more stages in five years.

But roughly one-quarter of the hospitals looked at showed no progression whatsoever during this period; they have remained at the same EMRAM stage the last five years. Moreover, just over four percent of the hospitals have remained at EMRAM stage 0 (a truly paper-based environment) for the past five years.