Study: One Third of Hospitals Have Medical Devices Integrated into EMR

Recording and charting changes in vital signs has been identified as one of the core areas that will be measured for meaningful use incentives. The new Intelligent Medical Devices HIMSS Analytics (Chicago) white paper, sponsored by Irvine, Calif.-based Lantronix, details progress on these efforts. The research suggests that just one-third of hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics sample on medical device utilization indicated they had an active interface between medical devices at their organization and their electronic medical record (EMR).

Those hospital respondents with such an interface in place also indicated the ability to automatically chart data from the device directly to the EMR as the primary reason they employ this interface between devices and their EMR.

The research, conducted from June 2009—June 2010, explored the number of types of devices in place at an organization, not the overall number of devices present. The survey included data from 825 U.S hospitals responding to questions about medical devices in general and how/if these devices are integrated into the EMR environment.

The devices included in the survey are:

• Cardiac Output Monitors
• Defibrillators
• Fetal Monitors
• Electrocardiographs
• Infant Incubators
• Infusion Pumps
• Intelligent Medical Device Hubs
• Interactive Infusion Pumps
• Physiologic Monitors
• Ventilators
• Vital Signs Monitors