Implementing electronic medical record (EMR) technology and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems are the top priorities of healthcare IT professionals who responded to the 20th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey.
The results of the self-administered Web-based leadership survey were announced at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual meeting being held in Chicago this week.
Thirty-one percent of the 304 respondents stated that their healthcare organizations' primary focus was implementing a comprehensive EMR. For 17%, the top priority was implementing a CPOE.
The economic slowdown is affecting investment in healthcare IT, however. Only 55% of respondents stated that their healthcare budgets would increase, compared with 78% in 2008. And only 42% stated that healthcare IT staffing would increase, a drop of 24% from 2008.
Security remains a top concern for the respondents, who represented 250 unique healthcare organizations. Although 84% said their organizations actively assess security risks, 25% reported that a security breach had occurred in the past 12 months. Of the total, 75% use intrusion detection services, 62% use e-mail encryption, 56% use data encryption, and 18% use biometric technologies. Single sign-on technology has been implemented by 31%, and an additional 49% plan to acquire it in 2009.
As might be expected, lack of adequate financial resources, cited by 28%, was identified as the top barrier to successful implementation of healthcare IT. Thirty-eight percent indicated that healthcare IT systems could help reduce medical errors by 38% and help improve quality outcomes by 24%.
HIMSS officials announced they will request additional information from survey respondents to assess the effects the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will have on IT spending.
Related Reading
Obama stimulus package allocates $20 billion to healthcare IT, February 19, 2009
U.S. health information technology falls short - report, January 12, 2009
Intrusion-detection testing finds network vulnerabilities, August 11, 2008
HIMSS survey: EMR tops healthcare IT plans, February 25, 2008
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