A national study of challenges to electronic health record adoption and meaningful use

Abstract

Background: Adoption and implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) has not been without challenges as it infuses technology into what has been a historically manual process of recording patient information. In an effort to identify these challenges, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology leveraged the Regional Extension Center population of over 140,000 providers to develop a structured way to track challenges to EHR adoption and Meaningful Use (MU).

Objectives: This report summarizes challenges to EHR adoption and MU based on nationwide data supplied by 55 Regional Extension Centers reporting over 19,000 issues representing over 43,000 unique health care providers. Practices were grouped on the basis of their place in the lifecycle of EHR adoption and MU achievement.

Results: Provider engagement and administrative issues were among the more common issues reported across all cohorts. The most challenging MU measure was the clinical summaries measure, but MU Measure challenges varied by practice setting.

Conclusions: EHR adoption and MU challenges are unique to practice setting and stage of the adoption process.