Health-Care CIOs Shopping For Bar-Code, EMR Systems

These were among the findings of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 15th annual CIO Leadership Survey, sponsored by the Superior Consultant Group and released Monday at the society's annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

In the survey, 72 percent of more than 300 CIOs who participated in the Web-based poll indicated their budgets would probably or definitely increase. Nearly 60 percent said their budget would increase by at least 6 percent.

"As you've seen over the past couple of years, every year there is a projected increase in IT spending. It's simply the nature of the cycle we're in," said Steve Lieber, president and CEO of HIMSS. "After being a sector that has underspent on technology, there is a realization it has some catching up to do."

Another indication of the upswing in health-care IT spending could be the show itself, which drew 21,000 attendees and 712 exhibitors this year, compared with about 19,000 attendees and 686 exhibitors last year.

On the top of mind of CIOs at the show and elsewhere is patient safety and HIPAA-compliance, which continued to dominate the top IT priorities as they did in last year's survey.

In HIPAA areas, security upgrades have moved to the front burner, being cited by 48 percent of the CIOs as a priority, while HIPAA-related EDI and privacy issues are on the decline. The survey also found that CIOs anticipate security will drop sharply as a priority over the next two years with the passing of HIPAA-compliance deadlines.

Patient safety, however, is likely remain on the front burner as No. 1 priority, driving demand for clinical decision-support tools and bar-code technology. The survey found that bar-coded medication management, electronic medical records (EMR) and clinical information systems will be among the most important applications over the next two years, according to 52 percent of the respondents.

"Bar-code technology is significant and getting a lot of attention," Limber said. "The driver here is patient safety and cost. If I can bar-code the patient, the IV bags, the medication or whatever, and I have a system that makes sure I'm matching up the right patient, right dosage at the right time, care will be more effective."

Limber said EMR is another hot topic at the show. EMR systems give doctors and nurses access to a patient's medical history from multiple providers, which promises to not only improve care but also reduce costs by avoiding duplicate tests and unnecessary procedures.

In the survey, the number of CIOs citing EMR as important was up nearly 11 percent from last year. "Nearly one-third are in the process of installing an electronic medical records system, so there is a lot of focus there and a lot of vendors at the show demonstrating their electronic medical records," he said.

About half the respondents cited Computer-based Physician Order Entry systems as important while another 43 percent cited Digital Picture Archiving and Communications systems as important.

In the area of security, identity management is likely to become a hot area. While only 16 percent were currently using single sign-on technology, 72 percent said their organizations would be using the technology within the next two years.

When it comes to adopting new technologies, PDAs, bar-coding and speech recognition rose of the top of the list, with more than half of the respondents indicating they planned to adopt those technologies over the next two years.

Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of the respondents said they would outsource one or more IT functions over the next two years. That included Web site maintenance and development (20 percent), applications development (13 percent) and help desk (13 percent).