By Healthcare Facilities Today

Rural hospitals face a number of challenges achieving the required "meaningful use" standard in health IT adoption. However, with support from the federal government and other organizations, they're making progress, according to an article on the Becker's Hospital Review website.

In a community of about 9,000 people in rural Colorado, it's "extremely difficult" to recruit people with the required health IT background, said Michael Archlueta, director of IT at Mt. San Rafael Hospital, a 25-bed critical-access hospital in Trinidad, Colo.  

Implementing an electronic health record system is expensive and the pressure is on for rural hospitals to turn the large sums into a worthwhile investment that will eventually improve quality, safety and efficiencies; reduce health disparities; engage patients and improve care coordination, all while maintaining the privacy and security of patient health information, Archuleta said in the article.

Mt. San Rafael is not alone in  these obstacles, the article said. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), critical access hospitals and other small, rural hospitals can face hurdles when it comes to funding, personnel and other resources needed to implement electronic health records and other forms of health IT.

However, the situation isn't completely grim. The ONC and other organizations such as the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy have provided resources to keep rural hospitals from falling behind.

"My mandate is to make sure that rural communities and rural healthcare providers aren't left behind in the push to leverage technology in healthcare," Leila Samy, the ONC's rural health IT coordinator, said in the article. "These rural safety net hospitals are anchor institutions. They are often the largest or second largest employers in their communities. Health IT in these rural communities is really a tremendous opportunity to fuel economic development."

Read the article.