Most Wired Hospitals Survey Shows Increased use of IT

The number of hospitals implementing intensive computerized record keeping and management has increased significantly in the last year. Health and Hospitals Network rates hospitals "based on progress in adoption, implementation and use of information technology." According to HHN's 13th Annual Most Wired survey, hospitals now:

"... are indeed making steady progress deploying advanced systems, including CPOE (computerized physician order entry), closed-loop medication, clinical-decision support, alerts and integrated digital images and dictation with EMRs."

Most Wired Hospitals have moved further than hospitals overall toward computerization. For instance, according to an analysis by iHealthBeat, 67 percent of Most Wired hospitals electronically ordered medications, compared with 46 percent of total respondents. And all Most Wired hospitals encrypt data for laptops compared with 85 percent of the total.

But there's still a way to go. "Achieving federal meaningful use criteria continues to be a challenge to all hospitals, including those on the Most Wired list," said iHealthBeat, "for example, 51 percent of Most Wired hospitals still manually input CMS core measure data into an electronic file."

Overall, though, hospitals continue to move, although inconsistently, toward computerization. Concludes Chantal Worzala, director of policy at the American Hospital Association:

"The Most Wired data reinforce the trend we've been seeing over the past few years of hospitals moving forward with technologies that are the most important for clinical care and patient safety."

Health Care's Most Wired: Most Wired Recognition

Hospitals & Health Network: Most Wired 2011

iHealth Beat: Survey Finds Hospitals Making Progress on Health IT Adoption