Healthland Releases Recent ARRA and Meaningful Use Survey Results at HIMSS 2010

Overwhelming majority of survey respondents are moving toward EMR and believe they will meet meaningful use criteria 

ATLANTA, March 1, 2010 - Healthland, America's market leader of healthcare information solutions for small community and critical access hospitals, today announced the results from its recent customer survey focused on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and meaningful use guidelines. Healthland publicized the results during The 2010 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition this week in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. The survey’s findings reveal that the new legislation has prompted over 80 percent of the small community healthcare providers interviewed to move forward with an electronic medical records (EMR) solution. The overwhelming majority believe they will meet meaningful use criteria by 2015.

The Healthland survey, conducted in February 2010 included responses from over 100 small community and critical access hospitals across the United States. When asked if they were more informed or less informed about ARRA and meaningful use guidelines compared to one year ago, the majority of respondents feel they now have more information surrounding ARRA and meaningful use. Healthland released a similar survey at the HIMSS event in 2009.

“It’s very encouraging the majority of the small community hospital market is in better shape than they were last year in regard to their level of ARRA information and confidence in meeting meaningful use criteria by 2015,” said James Burgess, president and CEO of Healthland. “Small community and critical access healthcare providers are crucial to healthcare reform. At Healthland, we recognize the importance of these hospitals and we’ve worked diligently to help them meet new ARRA guidelines with educational webinars, informational updates, financing options and IT solution assessments to assist facilities in need.

The majority of Healthland customers have confidence they will meet Stage I meaningful use criteria by 2011, when the incentive payments begin. The survey found 50 percent of the respondents feel they are somewhat confident they will Stage I meaningful use criteria by 2011 and 12 percent revealed they were very confident they would meet Stage I meaningful use criteria by 2011. The number increases dramatically when looking at meeting guidelines by 2015, when penalties begin - 85 percent of respondents are confident they will meet meaningful use criteria by 2015.

Respondents of the Healthland survey reported several areas that helped with communication of ARRA regulations including:

• Technology providers’ webinars and email communications
• Trade organizations communications
• Articles and information from industry media
• Internal research

Healthland representatives will be available to discuss the complete results of its survey at HIMSS 2010, booth #8422.