title: More than half of US hospitals have at least a basic EHR, but stage 2 criteria remain challenging for most.
abstract: The national effort to promote the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) is well under way. However, 2014 marks an important transition: For many hospitals, penalties will be assessed in fiscal year 2015 for failing to meet federal meaningful-use criteria by the end of fiscal year 2014. We used recent data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals--IT Supplement to assess progress and challenges. EHR adoption among US hospitals continues to rise steeply: 59 percent now have at least a basic EHR. Small and rural hospitals continue to lag behind their better resourced counterparts. Most hospitals are able to meet many of the stage 2 meaningful-use criteria, but only 5.8 percent of hospitals are able to meet them all. Several criteria, including sharing care summaries with other providers and providing patients with online access to their data, will require attention from EHR vendors to ensure that the necessary functions are available and additional effort from many hospitals to make certain that these functionalities are used. Policy makers may want to consider new targeted strategies to ensure that all hospitals move toward meaningful use of EHRs.
authors.affiliation: Julia Adler-Milstein is an assistant professor in the School of Information and the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adler-Milstein
authors.affiliation: Catherine M. DesRoches (cdesroches@mathematica-mpr.com) is a senior scientist at Mathematica Policy Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: DesRoches
authors.affiliation: Michael F. Furukawa is a senior staff fellow in the Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in Rockville, Maryland. He was director of the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation, and Modeling at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Department of Health and Human Services, when this article was written.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.affiliation: Chantal Worzala is senior associate director for policy at the American Hospital Association in Washington, D.C.
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Worzala
authors.affiliation: Dustin Charles is a public health analyst in the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation, and Modeling, ONC.
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Charles
authors.affiliation: Peter Kralovec is senior director of the Health Forum, in Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kralovec
authors.affiliation: Samantha Stalley is a research analyst at Mathematica Policy Research.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stalley
authors.affiliation: Ashish K. Jha is a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Ashish K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D000573:American Hospital Association; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D062527:Meaningful Use; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D014481:United States
keywords: Hospitals; Information Technology