Most rural hospitals wouldn't meet meaningful use: report

A large majority of rural and critical-access hospitals would not meet the measures needed to qualify for incentive payments tied to the meaningful use of health information technology, according to research published in the latest issue of the Journal of Rural Health.

The report, based on hospital-reported data from an American Hospital Association survey on IT use for 2007, is published in the journal's Summer 2011 issue. Just 5% of rural hospitals and 3% of critical-access hospitals participating in would be ready to demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health-record system, according to the report's authors.