HIMSS Analytics was founded back in 2004, and has been tracking data relating to IT purchasing, processes and products ever since – most notably with its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Models, which seeks to help hospitals and ambulatory providers track their progression toward a fully-paperless environment.

For the past two years, Healthcare IT News has been producing the "Benchmarks" column with the help of HIMSS Analytics, spotlighting different facets of the industry and taking stock of their growth. This month, we take a look at the past decade, which has been a period of remarkable growth and change – especially in the past five years or so.

The numbers are hard to ignore. Compare 2006 (the first year of EMRAM data) with 2013: Back in 2006, more than 20 percent of hospitals were entirely paper-based – zeros on the scale. By 2013, that number was down to 6.9 percent. Meanwhile, just 0.1 percent ranked Stage 6 and none were Stage 7. By 2013, 13.3 percent had achieved those milestones, combined.

The momentum has really come recently. By way of illustration John Hoyt, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics, points to two spots on the EMRAM scale – starting with second quarter 2011 and extending to third quarter 2013.

"That's nine quarters, which may seem like an odd number – why would you want to compare nine quarters?" says Hoyt. "The reason is that Q2 2011 is when meaningful use checks started to go out in the mail."

Since then, "notice that we've had 100 percent growth in Stage 7, about 170 percent growth in Stage 6 and more than 200 percent growth in Stage 5," he says. "The question is, does the stimulus program work? This tells us something's going on."

There are two different ways to look at that shift. The first, says Hoyt, is that "clearly it works – look at that growth!" But the other argument is that the most successful adopters are "the people who were already jogging when the gun went off in the race."

Either way you think about it, "We have stimulated the market."

Hoyt is fond of comparing the U.S., post-HITECH, to our friendly neighbors to the north.

"We have the same chart for Canada," he says. "There are the same vendors in Canada. It's pretty much the same culture, even if there's a different payment mechanism. But the numbers are drastically different. It shows zero percent growth in 7, zero percent growth in 6, and zero percent growth in 5, in the same nine quarters. So I think the stimulus program clearly has helped."

And where would we be had meaningful use never occurred? Nowhere near where we need to be. The adoption we've seen would not have happened without government intervention, billions of dollars, and exactingly prescriptive policies for how that money must be deployed.

And it happened just in time, just as the second decade of the 21st Century got under way. "The fact that we did this helped us get to a tipping point." says Hoyt. "And I think we're at a tipping point. More and more I'm going to hospitals and hearing that the younger doctors are expecting it. It's just a matter of funding it and getting it done."

When the meaningful use program was first announced, "there was excitement" in the industry. But not everywhere.

"I think in the community hospital market – roughly 50 percent of U.S. hospitals are fewer than 150 – I think the smaller ones probably were worried."

After all, lest we forget, meaningful use is not just stimulus money to adopt – it's a disincentive if you don't adopt.

"So I think there was some panic on the part of the smaller organizations who did not have the knowledge or the infrastructure in place," says Hoyt.

That said, even if the EMRAM chart doesn't yet show 100 percent Stage 7, "I think the industry has done as well as it could," he says. (Not to mention that there has been a sizable uptick in Stage 7 hospitals and ambulatory clinics, even in the past few months."

The progress made has been impressive, and relatively quick. Even if healthcare still lags other industries, that's something to be proud of, because it's not the only thing going on," says Hoyt. "We also have payment reform and ICD-10. It's just an incredible perfect storm."