HIT Survey Takes The Pulse Of Coming Year's Top Priorities
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Participate in this year’s survey to help determine which trends will shape healthcare in 2017.
Each year, Health IT Outcomes surveys health providers to determine which trends will shape healthcare in the coming year, particularly looking at which IT initiatives will garner top priority. The results of the survey provide key insights into the directions of healthcare that are crucial for providers and vendors alike.
In previous surveys, readers predicted Stage 2 Meaningful Use would be the top initiative for 2014, EHR Meaningful Use would be the most pressing issue for 2015, and PHI Security would be first on the list for 2016.
For the 2014 trends, Stage 2 MU edged out ICD-10 compliance by the closest margin in the history of the Health IT Outcomes survey, as 2013 marked a turning point for healthcare with the launch of the Affordable Care Act and other initiatives designed to reform healthcare. And while EHR Meaningful Use topped the 2015 list, PHI Security and ICD-10 Compliance also earned high marks for attention.
Last year’s results saw EHR/MU unseated from the top spot, replaced by heightened concern over security, hardly surprising since 2015 was dubbed “The Year of the Healthcare Data Breach.” In 2014 alone, there were more than 224 breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals reported, including the top five breaches at Anthem, Premera Blue Cross, Excellus Health Plan, UCLA Health, and Medical Informatics Engineering which saw a total of 108,200,000 individuals who had compromised PHI.
So, as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, what will be the most pressing initiatives for 2017? Certainly, the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks remains a serious challenge, and the results of the Presidential election may also have an impact on healthcare initiatives for 2017.
Now’s your chance to tell us which health IT trends you feel will shape the healthcare industry in 2017, simply by taking 10 minutes to complete this survey. Keep in mind, the survey closes November 30 at 11:59 p.m. Help us take the pulse on health IT for the coming year.
To identify the top trends, Health IT Outcomes asks each survey respondent to rank a series of technology initiatives in line with their implementation plans for 2017. For each initiative, respondents are asked to clarify whether the initiative was a “Top Priority,” a “Priority,” “Important,” “Somewhat Important,” or “Not Important At This Time.” Each response is then weighted.
For example, all “Top Priority” responses are given a rating of one (1), while “Not Important At This Time” responses are given a rating of five (5). An average of the total ratings is then calculated for each initiative. The lower the cumulative rating, the higher the priority the IT project is to our survey respondents. This rating system will be used to determine the Top 10 Health IT Trends for 2017.
Take The Survey