Explaining hospitals' dismal hit rate on electronic records

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this week that only 78 hospitals across the nation had met Electronic Health Records Stage 2 reporting requirements, part of the government's Meaningful Use program. The number, while an uptick from the previous month, is a small fraction of the thousands of eligible hospitals and illustrates how difficult it has been for hospitals and health systems to meet federal standards and earn incentive payments from C.M.S. One of the key problems with the latest requirements, according to the Healthcare Association of New York State and a recent article in the journal Health Affairs, is that hospitals and health systems are being asked to account for what takes place outside their buildings.