Hospitals slow to adopt electronic health records

Few hospitals met strict federal guidelines intended to speed adoption of electronic health records, a new study finds.

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: Electronic Health Records Were Supposed To Be Everywhere This Year. They're Not -; But It's Okay.
We were all supposed to have our health records online by now -; the past two presidents told us as much. Why that hasn't happened yet isn't a surprise, but the country has made some good progress toward that goal, a new report finds. Ten years ago, then-President George W. Bush set a goal for most Americans to have an electronic health record by 2014. Five years later, President-elect Obama doubled down on that just before he took office, calling for all Americans to have a digital health record by this year (Millman, 8/7).

CQ Healthbeat: Hospitals Struggle To Meet CMS Goals For Electronic Health Records
Only about 5.8 percent of hospitals last year met all the requirements of a "stage 2" federal standard intended to more fully realize the potential of electronic health records, a troubling sign even amid the rising use of the technology, a new study found. Medicare and Medicaid offer higher payments to providers if they make "meaningful use" of health IT, a definition that becomes increasingly difficult to meet over the three stages of a rulemaking program being put in place over a period of years (Young, 8/7).