Investigating Barriers to Increased Use of Electronic Health Records in Rural Mississippi Hospital

Recent regulatory changes have mandated the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). While incentives were available to help implement these systems, maintaining these systems has proven to be a challenge for rural hospitals across the country. Mississippi's rural hospitals are no different. This project explored barriers to increased use of electronic health records in rural Mississippi hospitals. The research performed for this project consisted of telephone interviews with 16 representatives from 14 hospitals that were members of the Mississippi Rural Hospital Association. This project found that while incentives were helpful in implementing EHRs, rural hospitals faced challenges in maintaining these systems. An additional finding was that the ability of hospitals to exchange patient information improved with the implementation of EHRs. Another finding was that hospital financial viability improved when smaller hospitals became part of larger systems with more resources. The lack of clinical specialists and information technology specialists in rural areas are a barrier to maintaining systems in rural hospitals. A final barrier faced by rural hospitals is the lack of interoperability among EHRs.