Hospitals and health systems are making significant progress in setting up electronic health records systems, but money is starting to get tight, KPMG said in a recent poll. Jerry Howell from KPMG told me that organizations are facing huge costs related to deploying EHRs,  and federal financial incentives will not make much of a dent.  He said funding for EHRs might have to be diverted from other ongoing projects.  

The KPMG poll found that while 49 percent of hospitals and health systems said they were more than 50 percent done with EHR implementation, 48 percent of health systems said they were “only somewhat comfortable” with the amount of funding for EHR projects. Nine percent said they were not comfortable with budgetary levels, and 18 percent said they were unsure. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has promoted the use of EHRs through programs that offer financial incentives to eligible providers who can demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR systems. Proposed criteria for Stage 2 of the meaningful use incentive program were published in the March 7 Federal Register, and public comments were due May 7.