The National Rural Health Association is working on a survey tool to help rural hospitals (all rural hospitals; not just NRHA members!) determine their readiness to meet proposed ARRA meaningful use requirements.
I was involved in the development of this survey, and I strongly recommend that every rural hospital take the time to participate. Don’t do it for me or the NRHA. Do it because of the many benefits that the survey output will bring to your organization. The benefits will include:
- Every respondent will receive a customized report that identifies the organization’s meaningful use gaps and provides recommendations
- Respondents will see how they benchmark next to other rural facilities of similar size and type
- Respondents will get information on the most commonly used CCHIT certified EHR vendors, and whether current users have confidence in these vendors
- Respondents will get information on rural facility IT FTE levels, and how these change as EHR implementations expand
- Respondents will be providing data to their advocates, who will use it to demonstrate the real HIT needs of small and rural providers. This could lead to additional grant and technical assistance opportunities.
- Rest assured the data you submit will be completely confidential. The final report will de-identify respondents, and only you will see anything that is specific to your facility.
Most of the surveys that you see are designed with a focus on larger hospitals, and the report output is rarely useful to small rural facilities. This survey’s design was guided by the specific needs of rural hospitals! The time it takes to fill it out will be paid back in spades with the actionable information you’ll receive if you participate.
CEOs should expect to see an e-mail in mid-December with information on how to fill out the survey. For anyone that wants to get started, the survey and a webinar that takes providers through all the survey questions is available at the below link:
http://www.ruralhealthweb.org/go/left/conferences-and-webinars/health-information-technology/
