Survey shows EHR skepticism increasing among U.S. doctors

Most U.S. doctors are more proficient using EMRs than they were two years ago, but fewer believe that EMRs have improved treatment decisions, reduced medical errors or improved health outcomes.

Those are the U.S. findings of a six-country survey conducted by Accenture of mroe than 2,600 physicians. A similar study was conducted in 2012, but today fewer physicians believe that the EMR has improved treatment (46 percent in 2015 vs. 62 percent in 2012), reduced medical errors (64 percent vs. 72 percent) and improved health outcomes for patients (46 percent vs. 58 percent).  

“Despite the rapid uptake of electronic medical records, the industry is facing the reality that digital records alone are not sufficient to driving better, more-efficient care in the long-term," said Kaveh Safavi, MD, JD, who leads Accenture’s global health business, in a release. “The findings underscore the importance of adopting both technology and new care processes, as some leading health systems have already done, while ensuring that existing shortcomings in patient care are not further magnified by digitalization. The U.S. healthcare market has made remarkable progress in EMR adoption, and we believe that as the technology evolves, so too will the benefits to physicians and patient care.”

Most (79 percent) of U.S. doctors are more proficient using EMRs than they were two years ago, according to the survey. The number of U.S. doctors who routinely use digital tools, such as secure e-mail, for communicating with patients has more than doubled since the last survey, to 30 percent, versus just 13 percent in 2012. The five IT capabilities that U.S. doctors use the most are: Entering patient notes electronically (82 percent); prescribing drugs electronically (72 percent); receiving clinical results directly into a patient’s EMR (65 percent); using electronic administration tools (63 percent); and sending e-order requests to laboratories (62 percent). 

However, despite U.S. doctors’ increased use of technology, more than two-thirds (70 percent) of them believe that healthcare IT has decreased the amount of time they spend with patients.  About three-fourths (76 percent) of those surveyed believe that interoperability of the tools currently available limits their ability to improve the quality of patient care through healthcare IT.  Although nearly all U.S. doctors (90 percent) said that better functionality and easy-to-use data-entry systems are important for improving the quality of patient care through healthcare IT, more than half (58 percent) said that the EHR system in their organization is hard to use.

The majority of U.S. doctors surveyed reported an increase in the services they now provide patients online. The number of physicians offering telemonitoring devices that enable patients to monitor their health has tripled since the last survey, from just 8 percent in 2012 to 24 percent now. Many U.S. doctors now provide patients with access to online medical records (55 percent) and electronic reminders for follow-up care (55 percent); enable them to book appointments online (46 percent) and view health-related information during consultation (36 percent); and offer consultations through videoconferencing (14 percent). 

The survey also showed that U.S. doctors believe that allowing patients to update their own medical records increases their engagement in their own health (cited by 82 percent of respondents), improves patient satisfaction (81 percent), boosts understanding of their health conditions (72 percent), increases patient and physician communication (71 percent), and increases the accuracy of their medical records (60 percent).

“The industry needs to adapt to a new generation of patients who are taking proactive roles in their healthcare and expect to have real-time data at their fingertips,” said Safavi. “When patients have a greater role in the record-keeping process, it can increase their understanding of conditions, improve motivation and serve as a clear differentiator for clinical care provided by physicians."