Usually, it’s the small institutions that are having fits when an IT program deadline is approaching. This time around, it’s the big boys that are struggling.
Intermountain Healthcare has announced that the organization will probably not attest to Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program this year over concerns about patient safety, according to iHealthBeat
In an interview with HealthLeaders Media, CIO Marc Probst said that with the organization transitioning from its own EMR to EMR software from Cerner, all the software will not be running at all of the locations by the end of this year. This isn’t surprising after the relatively recent announcement that Intermountain would be switching to Cerner.
It’s not clear what it says about the success of the Meaningful Use Stage 2 program, other than that Intermountain has other priorities, but it does make you wonder what other large health systems will take a similar posture.
After all, ONC Chief Medical Officer Jacob Rieder (who also spoke with HealthLeaders) said that other large institutions are reporting similar situations. As amazing as it sounds considering the money involved, I won’t be surprised if we see more institutions following similar paths. There are a decent number of hospitals that haven’t even selected an EHR software.
According to Reider, it will be easier for small providers to meet Stage 2 requirements, given that they generally don’t have to plan as far into the future. But when it comes to large health systems, it seems that achieving this year’s Meaningful Use goal is a bridge too far.
