Our fourth annual Industry Survey, comprising the views of over 1,000 healthcare executives from a cross-section of organizations across the country, shows technology as a fairly low priority—sixth out of 12 concerns. Health IT, EMR, clinical technology, and other types and uses of technology are a top priority for only 29% of leaders. Move along, nothing here to see?
Yet when you examine executives' highest priorities, technology isn't far under the surface. The top priority listed in our survey is patient experience and satisfaction. While the actions of physicians and nurses most directly affect patient care, caregivers today rely on technology to get their jobs done.
Obviously, clinical technology such as informatics is important in this instance, but healthcare IT also has a big impact. Electronic health records can play an enormous role in improving patient experience. Is anything more powerful in caring for a patient than comprehensive health information delivered quickly?
The second highest priority in our Industry Survey is clinical quality and safety. A study sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation linked clinical quality with computerized physician order entry (CPOE), which reduces the likelihood of errors in medication. Clinical informatics and clinical decision support can also protect quality and safety. Payment reform, in the form of accountable care, is another top priority. EHRs and other electronic linkages are prerequisites for new models of shared savings.
So who's going to help healthcare executives with their priorities? Or, as our survey puts it, who's going to save the healthcare industry? Seven percent of leaders look to technology, but the largest share say it will have to be hospitals. And hospitals are looking to IT tools such as business intelligence systems to help them figure out how to control costs and where revenue possibilities lie.
But technology is no panacea. It costs—a lot. IT and clinical technology are the third and fourth highest cost drivers in our survey. And technology doesn't always work as intended without a lot of human intelligence behind it.
Next week, I'm heading to the HIMSS annual conference and exhibition to see what's new in health technology. I will be meeting not only with many technology companies but also technology users. As always, HealthLeaders Media's emphasis is on how healthcare leaders and organizations can achieve their ends.
Although I like cool new gadgets as much as anyone (okay, maybe more than most), the discussions I most look forward to at HIMSS are panel sessions with healthcare leaders discussing complex, critical issues such as operational efficiency, care collaboration, and risk management. In other words, how they use technology to achieve these ends.
Back to our Industry Survey: nearly twice as many healthcare leaders say the industry is on the wrong track (46%) rather than the right track (25%). (The remaining 29% are on the fence.) Healthcare faces a host of challenges today. Regardless of what they think of the particulars of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or its chances for overturn, our readers tell us almost unanimously that reform is needed. Technology is part of the solution.
Edward Prewitt is the Editorial Director of HealthLeaders Media.
