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Vantage Point is a monthly publication of HIMSS Foundation , which surveys healthcare IT professionals on current industry trends. They had conducted a survey recently on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 331 healthcare professionals got the opportunity to take part in the survey conducted in February 2009.

Respondents were asked to identify the provisions outlined in the bill which could have the greatest impact on furthering the adoption of health IT.  More than one-third of respondents (39%) indicated that the greatest impact could come from increased Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement. Nearly 34% of the respondents indicated that the impact would come from incentives for the adoption of certified health IT. And 16% think that it it would come from establishing state-based grants for facilitating adoption. The remaining 8% said that the impact could be in the form of funds for development of health information exchanges and 4% think its none of the above sources. 

When respondents were asked about the steps that industry needs to take to ensure that money has greatest impact on IT adoption, the following were the responses. 52% of them emphasizes on the need of ensuring that healthcare organizations are addressing change management . 32% insisted on identifying standard reporting metrics captured by IT solutions. 6% believes that there should be provision of training for skilled workers . 7% said other reasons where 2% said that they don't now.

The opinion of  respondents about whether American Reinvestment and Recovery Act reduce healthcare costs or not, 48% of the respondents said that they don't believe that the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act would reduce healthcare costs. 34% of them believes that the act can reduce healthcare cost and 18% said that they don't know whether it will reduce healthcare costs or not.  49% of the respondents think that improved efficiency would be the greatest benefit of the act and 35% think improved quality of care and 16% think reduced medical errors would be the greatest benefit.

A larger part of respondents felt that, Out of several steps,"change management" is the most important one that healthcare organizations could take up in order to encourage health IT adoption. This supports the view of some observers that, while cost is a key obstacle to adoption, so is the fear of the unknown and the lack of technical knowledge among physicians.

Under the health IT provisions of the law, the Office of The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is supposed to set up regional “extension centers” to help physicians choose and implement EHRs. While the exact mechanism and the amount of funding for these centers have yet to be specified, a Senate expressed his view that this will be an important element of the HIT campaign.

For the purpose of making the process of EMR adoption easier, The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is supposed to set up regional “extension centers” to help physicians choose and implement EHRs. Experts says that these extension centers are intended to help people overcome hurdles in the course of adoption of EMR and help them to select the systems that are right for them, and help get them implemented and maximize the value they can get out of them. But the the exact mechanism and the amount of funding for these centers have yet to be specified and this topic is expected to be an important element of the HIT campaign. Dr. Blackford Middleton, chairman of the Boston-based Center For Information Technology Leadership, and 50 other experts sent the White House and Congress a letter to emphasize the importance of these centers. But due to the shortage of technical personnel, it’s unclear whether the private sector will support these centers or how they will be staffed.

Source: HIMMS, Vantage Point