With all of the initiatives promoting health information technology (IT), it is helpful from time to time to get a barometric reading of how we are progressing.  In addition to the TCS bi-annual survey on care management trends, Healthcare and Management Systems (HIMSS) publishes an annual survey that also sheds light on how the U.S. health care system is embracing IT systems and workflows.  

The HIMSS survey findings include:  

When asked to identify the single information technology (IT) priority at this time, half of respondents identified meeting meaningful use criteria, according to the 326 health care IT professionals who participated in the 22nd Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey. Two-thirds of respondents reported that their organization has already made additional IT investments to position themselves to qualify for the incentives associated with achieving meaningful use. 

As reported in the executive summary, other key findings include:

• Implementation of Electronic Health Records.  Slightly more than half of respondents indicated they have a fully operational EHR in at least one facility in their organization.

• HIE Participation.  Almost half of respondents (45 percent) reported that their organization participates in a health information exchange. 

• CPT-10/ICD-10 Migration.  Nearly half of the respondents reported that implementing CPT-10/ICD-10 was the top area of focus for financial IT systems at their organization.

• Supporting Patient Care. Respondents strongly believe that IT can have a positive impact on health care delivery. Approximately 40 percent of respondents reported that IT can have the most impact on patient care by improving clinical and quality outcomes.

• Clinical Input.  Clinicians are active participants in the IT environments, playing a role in IT system evaluation/selection, acting as project champions and participating in the development of policies related to clinical information systems.

• Security Vulnerability.  Health care IT professionals continued to indicate that an internal breach of security is their primary concern regarding the security of data at their organization.

• CIO Leadership. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of senior IT executives reported that they sit on the executive committee at their organization. Additionally, 87 percent of respondents reported a strong level of integration between their organizations’ overall strategic plan and the IT strategic plan.

• Cloud Computing. One-quarter of respondents indicated that their primary focus in this area was their server environment, which also includes virtual services. Only a handful of respondents reported that cloud computing was their primary focus with regard to their organization’s infrastructure.

For more information about HIMSS, go to www.himss.org.