HIMSS Analytics: Hospitals Slow To Progress In Their Use Of EHRs

Many hospitals have implemented electronic health record systems, but they're not rushing to embrace all that they may offer according to a new report from HIMSS Analytics.

HIMSS maintains an eight-stage framework for monitoring hospitals' use and development of EHRs, called the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale.
According to Lorren Pettit, vice president of market research for HIMSS Analytics, the most recent review of 4,811 hospitals found that about three-fourths (73.7 percent) have advanced at least one stage in the past five years; 20 percent have advanced four or more stages during that time period.

However, one-fourth of the hospitals have not progressed at all, and 4 percent are still at stage zero, which means that they're still paper records-based.