Few hospitals have computerized data
Researchers find cost a barrier to updating in US
CHICAGO - Less than 2 percent of US hospitals have adopted fully functional electronic medical records, with most citing cost as the biggest barrier, US researchers said yesterday.
"The data collectively show we are at a very early stage in adoption, a very low stage compared to other countries," said Harvard's Dr. David Blumenthal, who last week was tapped to lead President Obama's $19 billion push to increase the use of information technology in healthcare.
Obama has made electronic medical records a central piece of his plan to cut costs in a US healthcare system that consistently ranks lower in quality than other rich countries.
Blumenthal said the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, clearly shows the United States has room to improve. He said financial incentives in the economic stimulus bill should help, given that most hospitals report that cost as their biggest stumbling block.
The study by Blumenthal, Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health, and others is based on data collected in 2008 from nearly 3,000 hospitals.
It was designed to get a baseline reading on how widely US hospitals have adopted electronic medical records, which promise to reduce medical errors and improve health quality.
"Right now, very few hospitals in America have a comprehensive electronic health record," Jha told the briefing. "Only about 1 in 10 meet the definition of a basic electronic health record."
A study by the same group last year found just 17 percent of American doctors have switched from conventional paper records to electronic health records, and only 4 percent had fully functional systems that help them make decisions about patient care or order tests.
The group defined a comprehensive system as one that collects doctors' and nurses' notes, orders tests, helps doctors make care decisions, and is available in every unit of the hospital. They considered a basic system as one that included doctor or nurse notes and was used in at least one care unit, such as radiology.
They found that larger, urban teaching hospitals are more likely to have electronic health records than other hospitals, in part because they are better funded.
