Meaningful Use Pushes Community Hospitals to EMRs

The community hospital that still relies exclusively on a paper medical record is rapidly moving toward extinction, according to a report from Orem, Utah-based KLAS. The report, Community Hospital CMS 2011: Rapid Adoption, says many vendors are now seeing the community space as providing an opportunity for market share growth.

KLAS found that community hospitals—motivated by meaningful use and its associated financial incentives—have awakened to the reality that clinical information technology is not only within their reach but may be fundamental to their sustainability. Where clinicians previously may have had exposure only to order entry and results, the physician/clinician workflow is increasingly depending on technology.

As a result, community EMR sales exploded in 2010. Over half of community providers contracting with a CIS were those with no prior CIS, while another 36 percent came from providers deciding to purchase a different vendor after leaving their legacy system or affiliating with an IDN.

According to KLAS estimates, approximately 300–500 U.S. hospitals have yet to commit to a CIS vendor as of the start of 2011. The report explores what vendors are doing, as well as which vendors have lost the most hospitals in 2010, which ones made up for it in new sales, how hosted solutions are affecting the landscape of the market, how many IDN-associated hospitals vendors won versus standalone hospitals, and who the newer market entrants are for community hospital clinical information systems.