EHR Use At 50% Yet Stage 2 MU Remains A Hurdle

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Despite the fact that half of providers have adopted EHRs, a recent report in Health Affairs found that Stage 2 MU is still elusive.

A new study from the ONC, published in Health Affairs, has found that although electronic health record (EHR) adoption has increased in the last few years, many hospitals will still struggle to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use.

Researchers found that in 2013, 58.9 percent had adopted a basic or comprehensive EHR in the last three years. EHR Intelligence reports that this was four times the number of providers with EHRs in 2010 when the HITECH Act was passed. The ONC considers these results progress in electronic health record adoption.

Despite the high numbers of adoption though, the report states that provides may still find difficulty meeting Stage 2 Meaningful Use. Only one-tenth of the providers who have adopted EHRs qualify for Stage 2 MU.

“Most hospitals are able to meet many of the stage 2 meaningful-use criteria, but only 5.8 percent of hospitals are able meet them all,” explains the report. “Several criteria, including sharing care summaries with other providers and providing patients with online access to their data, will require attention from EHR vendors to ensure that the necessary functions are available and additional effort from many hospitals to make certain that these functionalities are used.”

“Despite the substantial increase in EHR adoption, meeting stage 2 meaningful-use objectives will require work for the vast majority of hospitals,” the authors claim. “Our findings suggest that functions related to electronic data exchange, both with other providers and with patients (in particular, providing summaries of care during transitions and giving patients the ability to view online, download, and transmit their health information) are critical gaps.”