74% of Physicians Report EHR Adoption Enhanced Patient Care

The CDC’s Center for National Health Statistics (NCHS) has issued a data brief announcing estimates from the 2011 Physician Workflow Survey regarding the physician adoption of EHRs, which is sponsored by the ONC. Overall, in 2011, 55% of physicians in office-based practices had adopted EHRs and 45% had not. Differences were observed between physicians who were EHR adopters and nonadopters by age, physician specialty, practice size, and ownership. Generally, physicians under age 50 were more likely to adopt EHR systems than physicians aged 50 and over.

Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology stated in his blog yesterday, "this data shows that EHRs are taking hold among a larger number of providers who believe that the use of technology leads to better, safer, more coordinated health care.” The findings reported that the majority of physicians who have adopted an EHR system (85%) were either very satisfied (38%) or somewhat satisfied (47%) with their system. About 15% of providers were either very dissatisfied (5%) or somewhat dissatisfied (10%) with their EHR system. The findings also reported that over two-thirds of adopters (71%) would purchase their EHR system again.

EHR Benefits

Physicians reported having accessed a patient’s chart remotely (74%) and having been alerted to critical lab values (50%) by using their EHR system within the past 30 days as some of key benefits of having an EHR system. A majority also reported that using their EHR system had resulted in enhanced overall patient care (74%).

Overall Key Findings of the study include:

    In 2011, 55% of physicians had adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system.
    About three-quarters of physicians who have adopted an EHR system reported that their system meets federal “meaningful use” criteria.
    Eighty-five percent of physicians who have adopted an EHR system reported being somewhat (47%) or very (38%) satisfied with their system.
    About three-quarters of adopters reported that using their EHR system resulted in enhanced patient care.
    Nearly one-half of physicians currently without an EHR system plan to purchase or use one already purchased within the next year.