80% of Community Hospitals Pin HITECH Hopes on Current EMRs

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are garnering deeper use in the community hospital scene, and nearly all have been certified HITECH-ready by an official certification body. Nevertheless, a fifth of these hospitals plan to switch EMR products within the next couple of year—even this close to meaningful use (MU) deadlines—according to a new report by the Orem, Utah-based KLAS.

For the new report, Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use, KLAS interviewed more than 500 health care professionals about their experience with various EMR systems. Of respondents, 80 percent described confidence in their EMRs, even if the hospitals themselves hadn't achieved deep adoption.

KLAS notes that McKesson and MEDITECH clients are most confident that their vendors will get them to Stage 1 of MU by 2013, due in part of their systems' reliability, robust clinical capabilities, solid partnerships, and rapid delivery of new technology.

More surprising, according to the report, is that a full 20 percent of those interviewed plan to switch EMR vendors in the next couple of years. (By comparison, only about half that many current EMR clients have come live on new products in the last two years.) Though non-MU-certified products appear to be most at risk of abandonment, providers appear to doubt some certified products as well.