According to a September 2011 HIMSS Analytics report, 10 percent of the 778 hospitals surveyed in 2010 met the Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements.
So yes, they are out there. Qualifying hospitals are cashing meaningful use checks. But nine out of 10 hospitals are not. A key difference between qualifying and non-qualifying hospitals, the report points out, is automation:
“…as hospitals report increased adoption of IT systems relevant to a fully automated electronic health record (EHR), these hospitals are more likely to meet the Stage 1 meaningful use criteria.”
In this way, data automation (the flow of patient data to the EHR) is alloyed with Meaningful Use; you can’t have one without the other. I trust that National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Farzad Mostashari would join me in encouraging those nine out of 10 hospitals that are not Stage 1 compliant to embrace automation solutions.
More details on the report here, courtesy of The New York Times.
