ONC finds most hospitals plan to use upgraded EHR tech in 2019

The vast majority of acute care hospitals has upgraded or plan to upgrade to the 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria.

The Office of the National Coordinator for HIT has released results of an analysis of 2017 data from the American Hospital Association’s IT Supplement Survey showing that 93 percent of non-federal acute care hospitals have already upgraded to the 2015 Edition or plan to do so.

The hospital data is encouraging, because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is working to finalize its proposed Quality Payment Program rule that would require the use of 2015 edition certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) beginning in 2019.

The 2015 edition is intended to foster greater interoperability and enable health information exchange through new and enhanced certification criteria, standards and implementation specifications. In addition, the 2015 edition supports patient electronic access to health information through new technical capabilities, such as application programming interfaces.

Also See: HIT developers make progress in certifying to 2015 Edition criteria

ONC’s analysis of the 2017 data from the AHA IT Supplement Survey also reveals that hospitals are electronically sharing more patient data than ever before.

In 2017, 88 percent of hospitals were able to electronically send patient summary of care records, while 74 percent could receive such records from outside sources. And, 61 percent of hospitals reported they can query this data, while 53 percent indicated that they can integrate this data.

Further, 41 percent of hospitals were able to engage in all four interoperability domains—electronically sending, receiving, finding and integrating.

“While this growth is impressive, important work remains, as only four in ten hospitals reported they can find patient health information as well as send, receive and integrate patient summary of care records from sources outside their health system,” writes National Coordinator for HIT Don Rucker, MD, in a blog posted on Thursday. “Engaging in all four interoperability domains is critical to ensuring that clinicians have information they need at the point of care.”