One-third not finding benefits from HIT for care coordination

Gaps remain in harnessing health IT for care coordination.

According to a study published in Medical Care, more than one-third of physicians utilizing health IT did not routinely receive patient information necessary to coordinate care. Also, among physicians who did receive such information, at least 54 percent of them did not obtain the information electronically.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality researchers conducted a cross-sectional study using 2012 EHR Survey data to evaluate the extent to which U.S. physicians receive patient data required for care coordination and whether receipt of such information is associated with use of health IT. Specifically, they examined the use of health IT and three types of patient information that helps facilitate care coordination.

The researchers found of all physicians with or without health IT, 64 percent routinely received the results of a patient’s consultation with a provider outside of their practice; 46 percent routinely received a patient’s history and reason for a referred consultation from an outside provider; and about 54 percent of physicians reported routinely receiving hospital discharge information.

Compared with those not using health IT, a lower percentage of physicians who used an EHR system and shared patient health data electronically failed to receive the results of outside consultations or patient’s history and reason for a referred consultation, according to the study.

The researchers also found that when comparing physicians with or without health IT, no significant differences were observed for the receipt of hospital discharge information.

Access the study.