Electronic health record sales reported to climb

Recent reports show electronic health records (EHR) sales increasing sharply in coming years. According to HIMSS Analytics, a Chicago-based research firm, 86% of hospitals are not in a position to qualify for the first of 3 stages of EHR meaningful use criteria, which start in 2011. But 51% of hospitals are close to meeting the first criteria stage, and another 17% are a year or 2 behind.

Preliminary results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual survey of office-based physicians show a large increase between 2008 and 2009 in physician adoption of EHRs. Some 20.5% of physicians reported using a basic EHR in 2009, up 23% from 2008. Use of a fully functional EHR rose to 6.3% from 4.4% in a year, a 43% increase.

Frost and Sullivan, a Mountain View, California-based research firm, estimates that physicians and other ambulatory providers spent $1.3 billion in 2009 solely for EHR software licenses and basic training. Ambulatory EHR software spending is estimated to double to $2.6 billion by 2012 and to $2.9 billion in 2013. Sales are predicted to fall to $1.9 billion in 2014 as physicians will have spent most of what will be necessary to achieve EHR meaningful use.