IHA has concluded a comprehensive information technology (IT) environmental assessment survey of Iowa hospitals, in accordance with the charge of the CIO/IT Director Workgroup.  Surveys were completed by 93 of the 117 community hospitals in Iowa.

Below are some selected results from the reporting hospitals:

• Ten Iowa hospitals have implemented a 100 percent electronic health record (EHR) system, while 69 hospitals are part paper and part electronic and 12 have not started implementation.
• Two-thirds of the hospitals reporting indicated the amount of capital needed to purchase an EHR system is a major barrier to full implementation.  Lack of adequate IT staff, resistance from providers and finding a system to match needs are also significant hurdles.
• Twenty hospitals have fully implemented computerized electronic systems in decision support for clinical guidelines and 49 have implemented for drug allergy and drug interaction alerts.

In looking at the entire survey results, significant progress is being made by Iowa hospitals in the deployment of EHR and other technologies. However, large barriers still exist for full-scale EHR deployment in Iowa hospitals, including lack of capital resources and physician resistance.