Healthcare CIOs Optimistic About Meeting Meaningful UseHealthcare CIOs Optimistic About Meeting Meaningful Use

As healthcare delivery organizations prepare their systems to qualify for funds under the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs, a new survey reveals that healthcare CIOs are cautiously optimistic.

Most think that they will be ready to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology, a prerequisite to qualify for stimulus reimbursements under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The survey was conducted by the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) between August 3 and 18. CHIME's internet-based survey received responses from 152 CIOs who are members of the organization. The survey reflects their initial response to the final rules for achieving meaningful use of EHRs which were issued on July 13.

According to the survey's results, 28% indicated that they expect to qualify for stimulus funding in the first six months of fiscal year 2011, which begins on October 1. An additional 62% reported that they expect to qualify between April 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012, which marks the end of Stage One of the incentive program, and 10% believe they will not qualify for stimulus funds until fiscal years 2013 or 2014.

The survey also noted that the expectations of CIOs vary depending on the type of healthcare organization they represent and its size. For example, some 38% of CIOs from academic medical centers expect to qualify for stimulus funding within the first six months, compared with only 22% of CIOs from community hospitals. In general, executives of larger organizations say they are more likely to qualify for funding within six months than CIOs from smaller facilities.

"CIOs are still early in the discovery process. We don't yet have a complete understanding of the certification process and its impact on providers," Pamela McNutt, senior VP and CIO of Methodist Health System in Dallas, and chair of CHIME's policy steering committee, said in a statement. "The reality of what it will take to qualify for stimulus funding won't be fully known until our vendors have obtained certification."

While there is optimism about achieving meaningful use, CIOs expressed concerns about the challenges ahead. When asked to rate their top three concerns in achieving meaningful use, 25% of respondents cited certification of applications. These concerns include implementing or upgrading to a certified EHR; delays because of the new certification process; or the need to certify self-developed applications.

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) was the second most frequently mentioned concern, listed by 21% of respondents. Many hospital organizations have reported that they feel they have little or no leverage in encouraging physicians to use CPOE systems, and that the systems require a lot of work to implement and depend on other clinical systems to be in place to function at a high level.

Some 18% of CIOs rated requirements for capturing and/or submitting data on quality measures as a top concern. Most current clinical systems do not yet automate this data collection, which means organizations face the prospect of manually collecting and submitting this data.

The survey found that relaxed standards for qualifying for stimulus funding will have little to no impact on improving providers' chances, according to 75% of the respondents.

About 40% of respondents say they are well-positioned to achieve meaningful use with their current IT strategy and existing applications, while slightly more than half say they are accelerating their plans to implement EHRs or otherwise re-evaluating current health IT applications to obtain funding.