HIMSS Report: U.S Hospitals Show Growth Opportunities for Certain EMR Apps

Patient portals, clinical data warehousing/mining, and radiology barcoding applications are poised for accelerated growth among hospitals, according to data from a recently released HIMSS Analytics report.

The report, “Essentials of the U.S. Hospital IT Market, Winter 2013 Edition,” focuses on the market profile of the applications considered in HIMSS Analytics’ Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), found these three applications to have an attractive growth opportunity.

Based on an analysis of the current market penetration and projected five-year sales trajectory for each application considered in the applications of the EMRAM report, first-time purchases of these advanced EMR applications are expected to increase greatly among hospitals across the country. The report also indicated that several foundational applications that have already saturated the market will drive a high volume of IT replacement sales. These applications include laboratory barcoding, pharmacy management systems, and information systems for radiology and laboratory departments.

“While multiple industry factors are driving the health IT purchasing decisions forecasted in this report, they all align back to one common goal—improving the quality of patient care,” Lorren Pettit, vice president of market research for HIMSS Analytics, said in a statement. “The findings presented in this report suggest there is an opportunity for vendors and consultants to assist hospital leaders in their efforts to improve care by helping them realize their full EMR capabilities. We hope that vendors and healthcare organizations alike will look to this report as a resource for identifying market potential and purchasing trends in 2014 and beyond.”

Of the three applications predicted to dominate first-time sales in hospitals, the patient portal market opportunity is the only one clearly tied to the meaningful use Stage 2 requirements. The predicted growth in sales for clinical data warehousing/mining applications are thought to be linked to efforts to extract value from investments in EMRs whereas sales increases in radiology barcoding applications are likely associated with patient safety initiatives.

The HIMSS Analytics EMRAM is a framework for assessing the maturation of EMR adoption in U.S. hospitals. It assigns a score that reflects a hospital’s EMR capabilities as it progresses from EMRAM Stage 0, a paper-based environment, to EMRAM Stage 7 in which all care processes are supported with electronic documentation. The EMRAM scores in this report reflect the rankings and reporting from 5,407 U.S. hospitals as of September 30, 2013.