CDC: Office physicians' EHR use at 72% in 2012
The vast majority--72 percent--of U.S. office-based physicians used EHR systems in 2013, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Data were gathered through the annual National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which is a probability survey of non-federal, office-based physicians who provide direct patient care. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) supplemented the survey data with a separate EHR survey. Physician responses from 2007 to 2012 were included.
Forty percent of physicians had an EHR system that met basic criteria--up from 12 percent in 2007. And, 24 percent of physicians were using a fully functional EHR system, up from 4 percent in 2007.
A look at demographics shows that 66 percent of primary care physicians used EHRs in 2012 and physicians aged 65 and older saw the biggest growth in EHR adoption rates, increasing from 19 percent in 2007 to 54 percent in 2012.
Not surprisingly, Esther Hing, lead researcher and CDC statistician, attributed the growth in EHR adoption in part to financial incentives provided by the federal government through the Meaningful Use program. The percentage of physicians using EHRs has continued to rise since this survey, reaching 78 percent in 2013.
The data revealed a widening gap between physicians using basic systems and those using completely functional EHR systems, according to Hing, which grew from 10 percent in 2007 to 31 percent in 2012.
Access the complete report here.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.