ONC: EHR adoption, MU efforts continue to increase
Physician adoption of EHRs and other electronic tools to help improve care, safety and coordination of healthcare continues to rise, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) reported in a data brief.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported early in December that the percentage of doctors adopting EHRs has increased from 48 percent in 2009 to 72 percent in 2012. The ONC report shows that since 2009, the percent of physicians with computerized capabilities to e-prescribe has more than doubled, from 33 percent to 73 percent. Within the past year, 56 percent of physicians have the computerized capabilities to engage with patients and their families by providing patients with summaries after visits, an increase of 46 percent.
The data brief, Physician Adoption of EHR Technology to Meet Meaningful Use Objectives, found that since the HITECH Act was enacted in 2009, the percentage of doctors that are meeting five Meaningful Use core objectives has increased by at least 66 percent.
“The increase in the number of physicians that are adopting EHRs and other computerized capabilities to meet Meaningful Use objectives related to quality, patient safety and efficiency is encouraging,” Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator of health IT, said in a release. “Patients are the primary beneficiaries as more and more doctors adopt the use of electronic tools like EHRs.”
In the past year, the percentage of doctors using EHRs meeting nine Meaningful Use measures increased by at least 21 percent, according to the dat brief. As of 2012, at least two-thirds of physicians have computerized capability to improve patient safety through electronic tools such as drug interaction checks and electronic medication lists. And, at least half of physicians reported they have adopted computerized tools to meet 12 Meaningful Use core objectives, and at least two-thirds have adopted computerized tools to meet nine measures out of 13. In 2012 there are 15 required measures; the data brief reports on 13 of those measures.
“The the number of doctors adopting EHRs increasing, and more of them are using the technology to meet the objectives that will help them improve care for their patients,” said Mostashari. "There is still more work to do before the full promise of health information technology is met.”