Healthcare providers welcome speech recognition in EHR systems

Twenty-three percent of healthcare providers have no plans to adopt speech recognition into their electronic health records (EHR) system despite it being an “effective, proven tool,” according to a new report.

Reaction Data recently released a report focusing on speech-enabled EHRs, how providers are approaching the technology and how it may be used in the future. Speech recognition technology allows electronic devices to understand spoken words.

“Speech recognition is not new technology. Despite the fact that it's an effective, proven tool that has improved the lives of countless healthcare providers, there's still a surprising number of individuals who think their organization will never adopt a speech recognition solution,” the report said.

According to the report, 62 percent of providers said they are currently using speech recognition in their EHRs, while 23 percent have no plans to ever adopt speech recognition into EHRs. Eleven percent said they will adopt speech recognition within the next two years and 4 percent said they are currently implementing it.

When providers did implement speech recognition technology, good things happened. According to the report, 75 percent of providers said integrating the technology into their EHRs was a seamless transition, while 12 percent described their integration as poor. Thirteen percent of providers were neutral.

Additionally, the speech recognition replacement rate was 97 percent, with only 3 percent of providers saying they have plans to leave their current vendor.

“To only have a 3 percent replacement rate says a lot about the speech recognition vendors. In our previous EHR Satisfaction report, we saw replacement rates ranged from 11 to 16 percent,” the report said.

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Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls. 

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