As meaningful use turns 1, printed records prevail

Wednesday marks the one year anniversary since CMS set the meaningful use criteria for electronic health records. And while that has helped drive adoption, a high percentage of hospitals report they expect to continue to treat patients using paper records for up to five more years.

The findings come from a recent survey from information management company Iron Mountain that asked 200 health information professionals how they’re scanning paper patient records and planning to use them moving forward.

According to the survey, 70 percent of hospitals expect to claim federal subsidies for meeting stage one requirements. Yet 78 percent said they may continue to use paper despite the financial incentive for meeting these requirements and the EHR's inherent promise of a paperless treatment cycle.

The results reveal that hospitals – lacking guidelines from CMS for scanning paper patient files – are taking different approaches to digitizing records, with scanning budgets sometimes exceeding $100 million. Key findings of the survey include...