Computerized Physician Order Entry May Be a Key Indicator in the 'Meaningful Use' of Electronic Medical Records

    CHICAGO, IL, April 06, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- As healthcare providers throughout the nation evaluate the impact of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provisions in the package that call for the "meaningful use" of electronic medical records (EMRs) are driving much of the debate. In light of these challenging questions, a new report from healthcare research firm KLAS may offer a useful resource in determining just what constitutes meaningful use.

"Though EMR technology has yet to be deployed at many community hospitals and most physician practices, the vast majority of hospitals with more than 200 beds have already chosen a strategy and a solution for electronic medical records," said Jason Hess, general manager of clinical research for KLAS and author of the new CPOE study. "For those larger facilities, the goal now becomes one of proving that their EMR solutions will actually be used by physicians, replacing paper-based orders and instructions with computerized physician order entry."

"CPOE Digest 2009: Meaningful Use and Physician Adoption" is an in-depth review of the market for computerized physician order entry (CPOE) solutions. With this report, KLAS interviewed virtually every healthcare organization in North American that is doing CPOE, to determine which vendor solutions stand the best chance of stimulating physician adoption and achieving the desired level of "meaningful use."

Some of the key findings in the report include:
• KLAS estimates that CPOE adoption has grown by 28 percent since the company's 2008 study. Combined with past data, this represents more than 265,000 physicians and 12.5 percent of U.S. hospitals live with CPOE.
• Cerner, Eclipsys and now Epic lead the charge with CPOE adoption among their customer bases. Both Epic and Cerner have seen significant growth this year in the number of hospitals doing CPOE. Cerner has more hospitals doing CPOE than any other vendor, while Eclipsys has the most physicians doing CPOE nationwide with its SCM product.
• Eclipsys continues to have the greatest percentage of its own client base live with CPOE.
• Notwithstanding large customer bases, CPOE adoption among Meditech and McKesson customers remains largely low, as their systems are modified for better physician use.

Closed-loop Medication Administration
The KLAS report also looks at provider use of closed-loop medication administration, where CPOE and medication barcoding at the patient bedside are happening concurrently. This process allows a hospital prescription order to be entirely electronic, from the doctor's initial request to the administration of the drug at the bedside.

Epic and Cerner set the pace once again in this area, with 45 and 42 hospitals having adopted a closed-loop process, respectively. However, the report also points out that McKesson has the highest percentage of its client base performing closed-loop medication administration. While McKesson has been slow in getting clients live on CPOE, considering the size of its client base, of those hospitals that are live with CPOE, nearly every site is also doing barcoding at the bedside.

In addition to Cerner, Eclipsys, Epic, McKesson and Meditech, "CPOE Digest 2009: Meaningful Use and Physician Adoption" also looks at the solutions offered by CPSI, GE, QuadraMed and Siemens.

To learn more about the CPOE market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, the report CPOE Digest 2009: Meaningful Use and Physician Adoption is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase the full report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com.

About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email [email protected] or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.

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