CIOs worried about short timeline for standards implementation

Almost two-thirds of hospital CIOs are concerned they may not have enough time to implement the 20 or so standards recommended by the federal Health IT Standards Committee for compliance with "meaningful use" of electronic medical records before the Medicare incentive program begins, according to a new survey from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). Only 8.3 percent of the 176 respondents said they were not worried that they would meet the deadlines. For hospitals, the effective date is Oct. 1, 2010, the start of federal fiscal year 2011; physician practices have three more months, since Medicare Part B follows the calendar year.

There is no single, dominant reason for their concern, though. Some 21.6 percent of CIOs said vendor readiness was their chief issue, while 15.3 percent cited problems accessing capital to invest in the necessary technology. Staffing issues, including lack of staff or inadequate training of current employees, could hinder implementation efforts for 18.7 percent of respondents.

"Adequate time to understand the impact of change, to test the changes and to adequately train the users are some of my secondary concerns," David Muntz, senior VP and CIO at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, says in a CHIME statement. "My primary concern is the time and effort required to implement successful change management."

For more information about this survey:
- read this Health Imaging & IT story
- see the CHIME press release, with links to the report

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