EHR adoption rate in U.S. physician offices increases 3.2% since 2009
The EHR adoption rate in U.S. medical offices is 36.1 percent, a 3.2 percent increase since February 2009, according to a report from health IT company SK&A, a Cegedim company.
The study was based on completed telephone surveys with 180,000 U.S. physician offices which identified physician adoption rates by office size, practice size, practice specialties, patient volume, ownership, geography and other variables.
According to the Irvine, Calif.-based company, trends from the study show:
SK&A stated that this research corroborates the recent National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey conducted by National Center for Health Statistics, which estimates that 43.9 percent of physicians are using full or partial EHR systems.
Both studies show that significantly more than half of physicians still do not have EHR systems in place, concluded SK&A.
The study was based on completed telephone surveys with 180,000 U.S. physician offices which identified physician adoption rates by office size, practice size, practice specialties, patient volume, ownership, geography and other variables.
According to the Irvine, Calif.-based company, trends from the study show:
- Physicians primarily use EHR systems for electronic notes (28.3 percent) more than for electronic labs/x-rays and e-prescribing;
- EHR adoption rates increase as the number of physicians, number of exam rooms and daily patient volume rise;
- EHR adoption is more prevalent in hospital- or health system-owned sites. Hospital-owned and health-system-owned sites have adoption rates of 44.1 percent and 50.2 percent, respectively. Conversely, non-hospital-owned and non-health-system-owned sites have adoption rates of 34.4 percent and 34.2 percent, respectively;
- The specialty areas with the highest adoption rates include dialysis, critical care medicine and radiology. Specialties with the lowest adoption rates include allergy/immunology, general surgery and general practice.
SK&A stated that this research corroborates the recent National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey conducted by National Center for Health Statistics, which estimates that 43.9 percent of physicians are using full or partial EHR systems.
Both studies show that significantly more than half of physicians still do not have EHR systems in place, concluded SK&A.