| Today's Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008 |
| Patient Safety, Electronic Records Among Top List of Healthcare Priorities |
| Monday, March 27, 2006 |
| SAN DIEGO -– The customer – make that the patient – is king, or should be, suggest results of an annual survey of healthcare information technology (IT) executives, who put patient satisfaction and safety at the top of the list of their business priorities. Patient satisfaction, they said, is the business issue that will have the most impact on healthcare in the next two years, followed by Medicare cutbacks and reducing medical errors, in the 17th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey sponsored by ACS Healthcare Solutions.
Slightly more than half (51 percent) of survey respondents identified patient satisfaction as a top business issue, compared to 44 percent in last year’s survey. The other top business issues, Medicare cutbacks and reducing medical errors, were cited by 50 percent and 44 percent of participants respectively. One of the keys to making patients happy is implementing technology to reduce medical errors and promote patient safety, which was cited by half of the respondents as a top priority in the coming year. Also working in the patient’s favor is the ever-increasing emphasis on implementing a paperless electronic medical record (EMR), cited by 61 percent of executives as the most important application in the next two years. The survey, which includes responses from more than 200 IT executives who oversee the technology operations at more than 473 hospitals throughout the United States, was released at the 2006 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition. “It’s gratifying to see that hospitals and healthcare systems are placing such importance on patient satisfaction,” said Blackford Middleton, M.D., M.P.H., chairman of the HIMSS board of directors, corporate director of Clinical Informatics Research & Development and chairman of the Center for IT Leadership at the Partners Healthcare System, and professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. “After all, it’s really all about the patient experience and providing the safest care, best service and high quality healthcare.” An EMR is an electronic version of a patient’s health record that is maintained and owned by a healthcare facility or system, and allows secure access of patient information by providers within that system. Nearly 9 in 10 survey participants (87 percent) noted they have or plan to purchase an EMR system. Further down the road is the ultimate goal of a national electronic health record (EHR) a “one patient, one record” system with all of the information in one place. The EHR would be owned by the patient, who could provide it to healthcare providers as needed. These electronic records could include everything from allergies to test results to insurance information. Technologies that can increase patient safety are among the most important applications during the next two years, according to survey participants. In addition to an EMR, bar-coding prescription medication (58 percent) and computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) (52 percent) were at the top of the list. Bar-coding medication ensures that the correct medication is given to the correct patient. CPOE involves placing orders directly into the computer, instead of handwriting them, which can lead to misinterpretations and mistakes. A new question in this year’s survey asked respondents about their involvement in a regional health information organization (RHIO) and 14 percent said they participate in one. A RHIO is a cooperative of healthcare organizations in an area, or region, that forms to electronically exchange health information in a secure format. Ideally, all healthcare systems eventually will belong to a RHIO, and RHIOs across the nation will work together to set up an EHR system. “As electronic medical records and electronic data sharing garner attention and interest worldwide, it is very promising to see the dedicated efforts of hospitals and health systems that are moving toward these information technologies,” said Charles O. Bracken, Managing Director, ACS Healthcare Solutions. “This year’s survey results indicate a strong commitment to patient satisfaction and secure, effective information sharing through EMR implementation and providers’ growing involvement in regional health information organizations. I expect to see this important progress continue throughout the decade.” Other survey findings include: -- EMR: Progress is being made in implementing an EMR: 24 percent have a fully operational system (compared to 18 percent last year), installation has begun for 36 percent, another 4 percent have a signed contract and 24 percent have developed a plan to implement an EMR. Only 12 percent said they didn’t have a plan vs. 17 percent last year. -- Technology in use: The technologies most commonly used among survey participants’ facilities are high-speed networks (93 percent), wireless information systems, (84 percent), an Intranet (84 percent) and computers on wheels (77 percent). -- Future technology use: In the next two years, respondents most frequently indicate they plan to use the following technologies: single sign-on/identity management (79 percent), a security tool that allows users to enter one set of log-on credentials; bar code technology (69 percent); speech recognition (65 percent); handheld PDAs (62 percent), which allow healthcare providers to electronically record and access patient information during checkups; and automated alerts to clinicians (61 percent). -- Security: Keeping health information secure continues to be a priority for healthcare organizations and an internal breach of security remains the top concern regarding the security of electronic medical information, cited by 51 percent, down slightly from last year (55 percent). The following security tools are those most frequently used at the participants’ facilities: firewalls (98 percent), user access controls (88 percent), audit logs (85 percent), multi-level pass codes (75 percent), off-site storage (74 percent), electronic signature (71 percent), data encryption (71 percent) and disaster recovery (68 percent). Single sign-on is the security tool most likely to be used in the next two years, cited by 78 percent. -- Web site functions: The main uses of healthcare organizations’ Web sites remain at about the same levels as last year: marketing and promotion (91 percent), employee recruitment (91 percent), online provider directories (83 percent) and providing consumer health information (74 percent). But survey respondents have bigger plans. While only 14 percent offer patient scheduling on their Web sites currently, 72 percent plan to offer that option within two years. And while only 3 percent offer patients secure and authenticated online access to their medical records, 52 percent plan to do so. The self-administered Web-based Leadership Survey was completed by 205 participants between Dec. 23, 2005, and Jan. 23, 2006. Those surveyed oversee the technology operations at more than 473 U.S. hospitals and health systems. Nearly two-thirds surveyed (62 percent) were the corporate chief information officers (CIOs) and another 27 percent were CIOs for a healthcare facility. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) work at one-hospital systems. Healthcare facilities represented included multi-hospital systems, healthcare systems, ambulatory care facilities (such as urgent care centers), physicians’ offices, mental/behavioral health facilities, long-term care facilities and home health agencies. www.himss.org |
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