The US HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently released an ONC Data Brief titled Electronic Health Record Adoption and Interoperability among U.S. Skilled Nursing Facilities in 2017.
Here are a few high level takeaways:
- More HHAs (78 percent) adopted EHRs than SNFs (66 percent) in 2017.
- The ability to integrate patient health information received from outside facilities lagged behind for both HHAs (36 percent) and SNFs (18 percent) compared to these facilities’ engagement in other domains of interoperability.
- HHAs (32 percent) and SNFs (37 percent) most commonly used their EHR to exchange health information.
- HHAs and SNFs that use three methods of exchange are more likely to have information electronically available.
- Nearly 40 percent of HHAs used telehealth technology to keep track of patients’ health between in-person visits.
