Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Blogs
    • AI
    • Deals
    • Layoff Tracker
    • HIMSS 2023
  • Opinion
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • 40 Under 40
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - AI and Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
  • Data & Insights
    • Data & Insights Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Physicians
January 07, 2013 11:00 PM

Ease-of-use woes stall health IT progress: researchers

Joseph Conn
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    The multibillion dollar federal investment in health information technology is producing mixed results, in part because electronic health-record systems remain difficult to use and—as a corollary—their adoption remains incomplete, according to a pair of researchers for RAND Corp.

    The RAND duo also charge that today's systems lack interoperability and that providers are failing to re-engineer their care processes to leverage the technology. The six pages of analysis and commentary by RAND's Arthur Kellermann and Spencer Jones is published in the January issue of Health Affairs.

    In 2005, RAND released what became a much-cited study on the estimated national healthcare IT investment needed to achieve EHR adoption by 90% of U.S. hospitals and office-based physicians. The sums and timelines offered were enormous—$98 billion in spending over a 20-year period required for hospitals to achieve 90% EHR use, and $17.2 billion to reach the same EHR adoption rate among physicians.

    But the predicted potential benefits were enormous, too. RAND estimated IT-linked healthcare cost savings of $81 billion a year. The study gave ammunition in subsequent years to several failed legislative attempts to provide federal financial support for health IT.

    Kellermann and Jones argue seven years later that critics of the 2005 RAND study now "can claim a measure of vindication" in that the effectiveness of health IT "has yielded mixed results" while overall healthcare spending has climbed from $2 trillion in 2005 to $2.8 trillion today. But that doesn’t mean the 2005 authors were wrong, they said.

    "The health IT systems that currently dominate the market are not designed to talk to each other," the two claim. Even with large, integrated healthcare delivery systems that are models of healthcare IT adoption and use—the Veterans Affairs Department and Kaiser Permanente—"information stored in those records is essentially useless if the patient seeks out-of-network care," they said. "The lack of interoperability is so stark that it has led some to speculate that major health IT vendors are opposed to interoperability."

    Regarding EHRs' ease of use, the authors said user interfaces on different systems should be similar enough that a clinician could move from one system to another "without extensive retraining," just as a driver can hop between rental cars and "drive any vehicle off a rental lot without instruction."

    The RAND researchers cite EHR adoption rates of 40% for U.S. physicians and 27% of U.S. hospitals are using a basic EHR as evidence that adoption of these systems has been "sluggish." But adoption rates are skyrocketing because of the federal EHR incentive payment program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

    For example, at a meeting in Washington on Tuesday, CMS official Robert Anthony estimated that 83% of eligible hospitals and 33% of physicians and other eligible professionals have received federal incentive payments for adopting and using a certified EHR system. Furthermore, the CMS made a record $1.22 billion in payments in December while 2,000 payment applications came in on Jan. 2 alone, Anthony said.

    The federal government has spent nearly $10.3 billion on EHR incentive payments, Anthony estimates.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    healthcare workers burnout
    Physicians left their jobs by the hundreds of thousands in 2021: report
    careallies patient care
    Physician assistant role sees record growth in 2021
    Most Popular
    1
    Centene to lay off 2,000 workers
    2
    How health systems are battling price-gouging allegations
    3
    Senate advances bill to temporarily aid hospitals, health centers
    4
    Elevance, Blue Cross Louisiana halt $2.5B proposed deal
    5
    Tower Health to sell urgent care centers, close others
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Help Center
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Blogs
      • AI
      • Deals
      • Layoff Tracker
      • HIMSS 2023
    • Opinion
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • 40 Under 40
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - AI and Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
      • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
    • Data & Insights
      • Data & Insights Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing