'Meaningful Use' Compliance Lags

A large majority of health care providers that are working to implement electronic health records do not expect to meet government deadlines for achieving 2011 "meaningful use" implementation standards, according to a recent survey.

Only one in 10 users surveyed are confident that they can demonstrate meaningful use next year and begin qualifying for federal incentive money, reported Black Book Rankings, a market and public opinion research company. Those providers are using a "handful of high-performance EHR vendors," said Kevin Parker, Black Book Ranking's EHR researcher, in a Dec. 10 news release.

"The perception of an effective technology partner is highly dependent on the quality of EHR vendor support through a several-month implementation," Parker said. He noted that more than 400 EHR vendors have emerged in the past year, offering different levels of service and support.

Among the reasons providers listed for losing traction during implementation:

• 93 percent cited limited support from their EHR vendor.
• 89 percent said implementation was delayed by the cost of paying for additional support from the vendor and/or consultants.
• 82 percent said they picked a vendor too quickly and are now suffering the consequences.
• 77 percent said they don't have staff trained to properly implement an EHR.
• 69 percent said they don't have the money or experience to correct problematic system interfaces.