Hospitals Forgo Intelligent Links

Linking equipment such as vital-signs monitors with electronic health records can significantly reduce medical errors, but a recent report shows that most hospitals do not use or plan to use the so-called "intelligent medical devices."

Most hospitals use equipment such as electrocardiographs, defibrillators and physiologic monitors, according to research by HIMSS Analytics, a subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Yet only about one-third of the 825 hospitals surveyed integrate any of those devices with their electronic medical record systems.

A medical device-EMR interface can reduce nurse staffing needs by increasing productivity, according to a white paper released by the group earlier this month. Transferring vital signs and other data directly into EMRs also can result in a near-zero error rate, the researchers said in the paper, "Medical Devices Landscape: Current and Future Adoption, Integration with EMRs, and Connectivity."

The researchers expect hospitals to expand their use of intelligent medical devices over the next five years to meet Stage 2 and Stage 3 federal "meaningful use" standards for EMRs. Medical device interoperability is one of the stated goals for those standards, which have not yet been released. (Health-care providers must meet meaningful-use goals to qualify for incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid. The program is now in Stage 1.)

"Intelligent medical devices will continue to emerge as a critical component of the EMR environment as the ability to automatically capture and manage patient data from these devices becomes a function of improving both patient safety and clinical outcomes," HIMMS Analytics concluded. "This also has the potential to impact the bottom lines of [providers] as they strive to achieve meaningful use in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid incentive funds."

Researchers conducted the survey between June 2009 and June 2010. On average, hospitals that have medical device-EMR interfaces connect 2.5 devices to the medical record system, HIMSS Analytics found.

Hospitals were asked about their use of defibrillators, fetal monitors, electrocardiographs, infant incubators, infusion pumps, intelligent medical device hubs, interactive infusion pumps, physiologic monitors, ventilators and vital-signs monitors.

None of the hospitals used all 11 devices. The highest usage was for defibrillators, which 99 percent of the hospitals used. The lowest was for intelligent medical device hubs, at 11 percent. The device hubs capture and manage data from other medical devices. Only 8 percent of hospitals said they have plans to purchase the hubs.