National eHealth Collaborative Shares Results Of 2012 Stakeholder Survey

National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) recently widely released the results of the 2012 NeHC Stakeholder Survey, featuring responses related to health information exchange, consumer engagement and other NeHC programs. NeHC previewed the results at HIMSS12 during its stakeholder meet-up and other strategic meetings.

Coming on the heels of the release of the proposed rule for meaningful use Stage 2, survey results provide insights into stakeholder perceptions related to barriers to health information exchange (HIE) and the importance of consumer engagement to transforming healthcare, which relate to some of the core measures that physicians and hospitals must meet in order to be eligible for Stage 2 meaningful use incentives. Stakeholders believe that the most important benefits of HIE include care coordination, ensuring that patients and providers have the right information available when needed to support patient care, and improving quality and efficiency. In addition, stakeholders believe that consumer engagement will be very important or important to transforming healthcare and achieving better outcomes.

"It is both interesting and enlightening to understand what stakeholders are thinking related to core strategic priorities for NeHC including education, HIE, and consumer engagement," said NeHC CEO Kate Berry. "This type of information can help inform our programs to ensure we emphasize the areas of greatest need to encourage progress toward widespread deployment of HIT and HIE to improve patient care."

Highlights from the survey are included below:

• "What are the most important benefits of health information exchange?" (Respondents were asked to select three)
  • 73% - Better care coordination
  • 65% - Providers and patients have the right information available when needed
  • 39% - Improved efficiency
  • 37% - Improved quality
• "What are the biggest challenges to achieving widespread health information exchange?" (Respondents were asked to select three)
  • 61% - Funding and sustainability
  • 53% - Interoperability standards
  • 46% - Provider adoption
  • 46% - Disparate electronic medical record systems
  • 34% - Privacy and security
• "How important is patient/consumer engagement to transforming healthcare?"
  • 95% - Very important or Important
  • 5% - Somewhat important
• "What Health IT topics are of greatest interest to you?" (Respondents were asked to select all that apply)
  • 60% - Interoperability standards
  • 57% - Meaningful use
  • 51% - Examples of HIE
  • 49% - Health IT policy updates
  • 49% - Healthcare reform
  • 44% - Privacy and security

For a full reporting of the top survey results visit: http://www.nationalehealth.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/2012%20NeHC%20Stakeholder%20Survey%20Results%20FINAL.pdf.

NeHC conducted this survey from February 13-17. The questionnaire was distributed to over 7,000 stakeholders with a response rate of 3 percent.

NeHC intends to use survey results and additional stakeholder feedback to inform its continued work with HIE, consumer engagement through the Consumer Consortium on eHealth, and with planning future NeHC University education programs.

About National eHealth Collaborative
National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) is a public-private partnership focused on accelerating progress toward widespread, secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange to improve health and healthcare. NeHC's neutrality and diverse multi-stakeholder participation provides a unique platform for collaboration. NeHC educates, connects, and encourages healthcare stakeholders to advance health information technology and health information exchange nationwide through its NeHC University web-based education program, its Consumer Consortium on eHealth, its support of the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange, its collaborative online community and its ongoing study of leading health information exchanges.

National eHealth Collaborative is a cooperative agreement partner of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SOURCE: National eHealth Collaborative