Hospital CIOs eye new technologies, despite shaky budgets
CHICAGO—Implementing clinical systems, including an EMR and computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, was cited as the top priority for health IT professionals who responded to the 20th Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Leadership Survey, which was presented Monday at the annual conference.
Of the 304 respondents, 31 percent said the primary focus would be ensuring their organization has a full EMR. Another 17 percent said the primary focus would be the installation of a CPOE.
Financial support for IT continues to be a barrier for health IT professionals with 28 percent of respondents noting that lack of adequate resources/lack of budget continues to be identified as the most significant barrier to successfully implementing IT. Half of respondents indicated that their 2009 IT budget would increase relative to their 2008 budget, which is a decline from the 78 percent of respondents who reported this in the 2008 survey. Also, 75 percent of respondents cited the current economic environment as the reason for a decline in their IT operating budget.
Overall, 54 percent said financial considerations were the business issues that would most impact on healthcare.
"This liquidity crisis is still out there, so access to capital--even small amounts of capital--is difficult. Providers of all sizes are focusing on the bottom line of what is profitable," according to Tim Zoph, CIO of the 897-bed Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, who spoke at the survey presentation. "It's very difficult to find any source of funding for IT implementations, other than operations, and there has been a new emphasis on the operating budget and margins, leading organizations to hunker down and focus on their core operations in order to sustain its own investment. While the ARRA incentives appear to be coming, it's hard to think of incentives that are two to three years out. My guess is that things won't turn around until six to nine months. It's just too tough out there."
Denni McColm, CIO of the 74-bed, rural-based Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Mo., echoed the thoughts of Zoph, despite the differences of their facilities. "We were asked to present a budget that was bare bones because of the economy. Since the government has not defined interoperability or clinical decision support, we are not sure if we will have to tweak our systems to achieve the incentives. We are pausing our IT implementations until these types of IT terms are clearly defined, because we need to make sure we meet these requirements first," she said.
For IT staffing, approximately 42 percent of respondents indicated that their staffing levels would increase in the next 12 months, which is down from two-thirds of respondents who predicted that the number of FTEs in IT departments would increase in the 2008 survey. Most of those reporting an increase state the increase will be small--less than a 10 percent increase. The most critical staffing need was identified in the area of clinical application support.
Security issues remained a top concern and 84 percent of respondents said their organization actively assesses security risks, and about 25 percent said they had experienced a security breach in the past year. To address the risks, 49 percent said they plan to purchase single sign-on technology in the next year; with 31 percent reporting that they have single sign-on technology. Other security technologies that one-third or more respondents said they plan to purchase include email encryption, biometric technologies, intrusion prevention/detection service and data encryption. Currently, 62 percent use email encryption, 18 percent use biometric technologies, 75 percent use intrusion prevention/detection service and 56 percent use data encryption.
A total of 304 valid responses were received for the web-based survey. Data were collected between Feb. 1 and March 6. HIMSS noted that many respondents completed the research prior to the Feb. 17 signing of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which aims to prompt the widespread adoption of health IT and enable electronic exchange of health information through financial incentives. "To assess the impact that the ARRA will have on IT spending, HIMSS is gathering additional information from survey respondents," the society said.
The survey respondents represent 250 healthcare organizations and nearly 700 hospitals. The average bed size of the hospitals in this survey is 519 and the median bed size is 300. Approximately 80 percent of survey respondents reported that they are a senior IT executive at their organizations. Specifically, 62 percent of respondents were corporate CIOs and another 20 percent were facility-level CIOs.
Of the 304 respondents, 31 percent said the primary focus would be ensuring their organization has a full EMR. Another 17 percent said the primary focus would be the installation of a CPOE.
Financial support for IT continues to be a barrier for health IT professionals with 28 percent of respondents noting that lack of adequate resources/lack of budget continues to be identified as the most significant barrier to successfully implementing IT. Half of respondents indicated that their 2009 IT budget would increase relative to their 2008 budget, which is a decline from the 78 percent of respondents who reported this in the 2008 survey. Also, 75 percent of respondents cited the current economic environment as the reason for a decline in their IT operating budget.
Overall, 54 percent said financial considerations were the business issues that would most impact on healthcare.
"This liquidity crisis is still out there, so access to capital--even small amounts of capital--is difficult. Providers of all sizes are focusing on the bottom line of what is profitable," according to Tim Zoph, CIO of the 897-bed Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, who spoke at the survey presentation. "It's very difficult to find any source of funding for IT implementations, other than operations, and there has been a new emphasis on the operating budget and margins, leading organizations to hunker down and focus on their core operations in order to sustain its own investment. While the ARRA incentives appear to be coming, it's hard to think of incentives that are two to three years out. My guess is that things won't turn around until six to nine months. It's just too tough out there."
Denni McColm, CIO of the 74-bed, rural-based Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Mo., echoed the thoughts of Zoph, despite the differences of their facilities. "We were asked to present a budget that was bare bones because of the economy. Since the government has not defined interoperability or clinical decision support, we are not sure if we will have to tweak our systems to achieve the incentives. We are pausing our IT implementations until these types of IT terms are clearly defined, because we need to make sure we meet these requirements first," she said.
For IT staffing, approximately 42 percent of respondents indicated that their staffing levels would increase in the next 12 months, which is down from two-thirds of respondents who predicted that the number of FTEs in IT departments would increase in the 2008 survey. Most of those reporting an increase state the increase will be small--less than a 10 percent increase. The most critical staffing need was identified in the area of clinical application support.
Security issues remained a top concern and 84 percent of respondents said their organization actively assesses security risks, and about 25 percent said they had experienced a security breach in the past year. To address the risks, 49 percent said they plan to purchase single sign-on technology in the next year; with 31 percent reporting that they have single sign-on technology. Other security technologies that one-third or more respondents said they plan to purchase include email encryption, biometric technologies, intrusion prevention/detection service and data encryption. Currently, 62 percent use email encryption, 18 percent use biometric technologies, 75 percent use intrusion prevention/detection service and 56 percent use data encryption.
A total of 304 valid responses were received for the web-based survey. Data were collected between Feb. 1 and March 6. HIMSS noted that many respondents completed the research prior to the Feb. 17 signing of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which aims to prompt the widespread adoption of health IT and enable electronic exchange of health information through financial incentives. "To assess the impact that the ARRA will have on IT spending, HIMSS is gathering additional information from survey respondents," the society said.
The survey respondents represent 250 healthcare organizations and nearly 700 hospitals. The average bed size of the hospitals in this survey is 519 and the median bed size is 300. Approximately 80 percent of survey respondents reported that they are a senior IT executive at their organizations. Specifically, 62 percent of respondents were corporate CIOs and another 20 percent were facility-level CIOs.