EHRs falling short in achieving a return on investment

The Electronic Health Records Meaningful Use program has generated a poor return for the industry, according to 1,100 healthcare professionals responding to a recent survey.

However, many of the respondents also indicated that they have high hopes that data analytics will make clinical data in EHRs more valuable, as the industry moves from data collection to data analysis in support of the move to value-based reimbursement.

The survey was conducted at the Healthcare Analytics Summit in Salt Lake City, an event hosted by analytics vendor Health Catalyst. Asked to assess the return on the EHR investments, 19 percent of respondents said it terrible, and 42 percent rated the return as poor.

Another 29 percent said they considered the ROI on records systems as mediocre; only 10 percent reported that they were pleased with the return.

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By contrast, 83 percent of respondents said they have high hopes for data analytics to support population health management efforts, although most acknowledge that their organization has not yet tapped full use of analytics. Half of those responding said their organizations are only at the most basic level of data integration and curation. Only 5 percent consider their organizations to be conducting advanced analytics.

A small number of respondents report they have a wait-and-see attitude toward adopting analytics, with some worried other priorities could doom success. But just 4 percent are skeptical that analytics will deliver on its promises.