Costs, training top hospital EHR concerns

Three out of four hospital executives say their organizations have partly or fully implemented electronic health records of some sort, and 83% have either selected or implemented an EHR that can fulfill federal meaningful use requirements, according to a survey conducted by Dell. The Dell Executive & Patient Survey interviewed hospital executives as well as recent hospital patients in fall 2010 to gauge their attitudes toward various issues facing the healthcare industry. The survey, which polled 150 hospital executives, also found that a third of respondents are participating in some form of local, regional, or state health information exchange, which allows multiple providers to have access to the same patient data. Another 54% are planning to participate in an HIE and almost 70% have partly or fully implemented an online physician portal.