These Graphs Show How Fast Hospitals Are Adopting Computers -- And How Far They Have To Go

On Monday, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published its annual report on health information technology in the United States. Hospitals are adopting new computer systems at a rapid pace as a result of U.S. laws that create financial incentives to do so — the the benefit of companies like privately held Epic Systems, Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts and AthenaHealth. The entire report can be found here.

Two graphs jumped out at me. The first shows how many hospitals have adopted electronic health record systems, and how few of these are top-of-the-line IT suites that do everything the government thinks they should.