This past week I had the opportunity to speak with about 30 CFOs. Some were from community hospitals and others were from critical access hospitals. All were there for the same reason: to learn about the federal EHR Incentive Program. But before I went into the details of Stage 1 of “Meaningful Use” I took a quick poll. The results were quite disturbing.

The first two questions merely defined the group as either CH or CAH. From there, it got ugly. I asked which facilities had a strategic business plan. Only about 20 percent of them raised their hands. One CFO actually asked what that was. I then asked of those six, which had a strategic information technology plan that was aligned with the business plan. A single hand went up. Here was a room of the leaders of hospitals centered around a particular region of the country and only three percent have an IT plan! Surely this isn’t indicative of the country.

I and others can help explain what will help a hospital and physicians demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health record. We can work together as consultant and client to assess the current state of information technology in the hospital and prepare a gap analysis. But in the end, it will take a strategic plan to move the organization down the path of meaningful use. How the IT departments of these organizations achieve anything is beyond me. Not only does the IT department lack a plan to give them direction, the hospital itself does not have a plan to grow the business – to offer new services to patients.

Where are the goals to educate the community? Is there a need for home health? Maybe a rehab facility? Whatever direction the hospital plans to take, the documentation must be available to whomever is developing the IT plan so that IT can be prepared to adequately support the business growth and needs.

I won’t identify the area of the country where I was, but I sure hope they took heed. It’s time for them to make a u-turn. The road they are all traveling together is a bumpy one.

-Jeff Kerber
Director, General Consulting Services