CHICAGO –

More than four in 10 hospitals stand a good chance of meeting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s meaningful use criteria in 2011, according to the latest data from HIMSS Analytics.

HIMSS Analytics President and CEO Dave Garets unveiled Q3 2009 data last month showing that just more than 40 percent of hospitals had reached Stage 3 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model. That’s up 5 percentage points from 2008 data and about 30 percentage points higher than data obtained just a few years ago, he said.

In the HIMSS Analytics model, Stage 3 hospitals typically use some nursing documentation, such as flow sheets and vital signs, clinical decision support to conduct error checking with order entry and PACS availability outside the radiology department via the organization’s Intranet.