Meeting meaningful use is taking precedence in health IT budgets for 2011, according to hospital executives polled in a recent survey.

The report, released by Lexington, Mass.-based Imprivata, polled nearly 500 healthcare IT decision makers across North America on this year's healthcare IT trends.

Physician adoption is key to success in meeting meaningful use of EMRs, according to the survey.

• Seventy-five percent of respondents claim meaningful use to be their top budget priority for 2011 IT investments.
• Nearly fifty-four percent cite physician adoption of EMRs to be their greatest challenge in meeting that goal.
• Forty-eight percent of healthcare IT executives believe password management issues slow physician adoption of EMRs.
• Eighty-seven percent of respondents say time to access an EMR impacts physician satisfaction and 73 percent said that it also impacts overall patient care.

"Achieving Stage 1 meaningful use is a critical milestone for hospitals this year, and removing any barriers that may slow adoption is an essential component of the implementation plan," says Barry P. Chaiken, MD, CMO at Imprivata. "By introducing technologies that protect patient privacy, yet optimize the clinician's workflow experience by reducing the time it takes to reach the point of productivity, organizations can increase satisfaction and the likelihood for success."

[Read more about one such technology recently announced: Doc messaging system launched by AAFP, Surescripts.]

The survey finds physicians are increasingly relying on mobile devices within their daily routines.

• More than half of respondents are aware that at least 26 percent of their physicians are accessing EMRs remotely, with many of these physicians using their own personal devices.
• The majority of respondents (65 percent) has currently deployed personal devices for physicians, or has plans to deploy before the end of 2012, indicating the need to implement technologies to protect patient data accessed on these devices.

[See also: mHealth apps forecast to increase threefold by 2012.]

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments are gaining momentum within the healthcare industry, the survey reveals. Forty-nine percent of respondents either currently has VDI environments (23 percent) or has active plans (26 percent) to implement a VDI environment.

Click here to see more survey results.