You may be familiar with Hospital & Healthcare Networks “Most Wired” survey. It measures the adoption of information technologies by healthcare providers aimed at improving patient care and safety. Now in its twelfth year, the survey has been redesigned to better gauge a provider’s commitment in using analytics and reporting to achieve “meaningful use.”

Put simply, meaningful use translates to efficiency: the efficient use and sharing of patient care information via electronic health records (EHRs) to enhance outcomes. Though some healthcare employers feel pressured by reform advocates to adopt EHRs prematurely, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal, M.D., thinks many hospitals and independent practitioners have been waiting too long.

“Can we make these changes expeditiously enough?” Blumenthal said in an interview with H&HN.

The good news is hospitals and independent healthcare employers are indeed making changes. The H&HN survey proves it over time. In 2006-2010, the number of physicians participating in a closed-loop medication system rose more than 15 percent, greatly diminishing the risk of ‘right patient wrong medication.’

Over the five-year period 2005-2010, the number of hospitals using barcodes or RFID (radiofrequency identification) technologies to track medications increased a whopping 33 percent, decreasing theft and minimizing abuse among staff.

“If you don’t have electronic ordering as part of a closed-loop system, you don’t have it as a safety component, Linda Reed, R.N. states in a report entitled “Meaningful Use Hoists Hospital IT to Next Level.”

Shockingly, the top 99 “Most Wired” healthcare providers in 2010 were 31 percentage points ahead of cohorts in deploying computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems to synchronize alerts for physicians, nurses and pharmacists. An indication of how far some providers still have to come to meet meaningful use guidelines moving forward.

When integrated with a clinical decision support system, CPOE provides clinicians with real-time feedback over a wide-range of diagnostic and treatment-related information.  Examples include drug interactions, patient allergies to prescribed medications, medication contraindications and renal- and weight-based dosing, reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To adopt meaningful use, EHRs and CPOE, healthcare employers need qualified staff. Candidate Direct provides staffing solutions to healthcare providers of all sizes and types. Web-based and FREE to hospitals, the Candidate Direct Marketplace allows healthcare employers to find high quality staff quickly and to source candidates with the credentials needed to advance patient care swiftly. Call 800.585.1710 today or click Get Started.

The Candidate Direct Marketplace® provides a single place for healthcare providers to source, recruit, procure and manage contingent and direct hire needs. Our healthcare technology blog provides readers with information about current trends and aims to stay in the forefront of healthcare staffing technology and industry news. Please contact Candidate Direct for more information about our healthcare staffing software technology and hospital cost reduction.