AHA Leaders Told Help Is Coming for EHRs, Doc Fix Payments

While healthcare reform legislation may be just a month old, attendees of the American Hospital Association's annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Monday were told that hospitals are facing major challenges that need to be addressed right now to ensure quality care delivery will continue.

In earlier times, the mantra of healthcare leaders was "do more with less," said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. But now there's a new twist: "That's changing to 'do better with less.'" This means that hospitals need to move to the forefront now to improve patient care quality, safety and reliability; construct new integrative models of care; and stop medical mistakes. "We have to seize this opportunity and ensure hospitals are natural leaders at this time of great challenge and transformation," Umbdenstock said. But to get there, hospitals will require help at the federal level. And, according to two House members, Congress is listening and ready to assist. One of the major areas of concern has been how hospitals can become "meaningful users" of electronic health records and adopters of health information technology under current federal proposals.