Physician survey sheds light on health IT views

Managing the shift of reimbursement models with payers topped the list of challenges reported in a recent survey by Wolter Kluwer Health, which tallied the views of 300 practicing physicians in the fields of primary care, family medicine and internal medicine.

In other challenges, the survey found that more than eight in 10 physicians said they are struggling with spending sufficient time with patients, dealing with impacts of the Affordable Care Act and keeping up with the latest research. Financial management also ranked as a strong concern among physicians.

When asked specifically about impacts of the Affordable Care Act, 84 percent cited this as either very or somewhat challenging for their practice. Seven out of 10 physicians (67 percent) said the Affordable Care Act is a top contributor to rising healthcare costs.

One-third of physicians reported that they are likely to leave their practice within the next one to two years; reasons cited included inability to make their practice profitable and low work satisfaction.

In other findings:

• 80 percent at least sometimes use browsers such as Google and Yahoo for information, coming in as the second leading physician information source after professional journals (84 percent).
• 55 percent of physicians use both smartphones and tablets in their daily practice; primary uses of smartphones are accessing drug information (72 percent), communicating with nurses and other staff (44 percent), accessing medical research (43 percent) and accessing evidence-based clinical reference tools at the point of care with patients (42 percent).
• Mobile apps are the most heavily used digital/social media channel for physicians, used by 24 percent.