EHR Adoption is Essential for Outpatient Surgery to Remain Relevant in Managed Care

In 2009, hospitals and doctors were given financial incentives to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) were not eligible for these funds, and were therefore not incentivized like the rest of the healthcare system to implement the technology. The consequence of that differentiation is that the majority of ASCs are still charting on paper, even while the rest of the health system has moved to digital records.

As the health system continues to evolve and grow their managed care networks, hospitals and health systems are making significant investments into the ASC industry as a solution for cost-effectiveness, capacity, and better patient outcomes. EHR adoption is essential for ASCs to be seen as attractive partners in the managed health care space, with the ability to manage and share accurate data and in a secure and timely way, and to share and benchmark data on patient health outcomes.