“With more than half of the respondents reporting that they have qualified for meaningful use Stage 1 and 25% saying that they will invest a minimum of $1 million to achieve Stage 2, it seems that we have reached a tipping point where initial government investments are beginning to pay off and meaningful use is becoming ingrained in the healthcare industry,” Jennifer Horowitz, senior director of research at HIMSS Analytics, said in a release.
Of the 298 respondents that represent close to 600 hospitals, 87% indicated they would complete their conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10 by the Oct. 1, 2014 compliance deadline. On that date, the ICD-9 code sets used for reporting diagnoses and inpatient procedures will be superseded by ICD-10 code sets.
But not all of the data gave cause for celebration. Survey respondents communicated concerns regarding insufficient staffing and financial resources, naming both as barriers to IT implementation.
“We're seeing a pattern of consistent concern over IT staffing shortages,” Horowitz said. “Clinical application support, network support and clinical informatics professionals are in high demand.”
The HIMSS survey was sponsored by enterprise applications and services provider Infor. This marks the 24th year of the survey released by HIMSS, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on improving healthcare through the use of IT and management systems.
