Survey: U.S. office-based EMR/EHR use rises 7.5% in 2008

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), an annual U.S. representative survey of patient visits to office-based physicians, found that 41.5 percent of physicians reported using all or partial EMR/EHR systems (not including systems solely for billing) in their office-based practices in 2008. The comparable figure for the 2007 NAMCS was 34 percent.

The survey was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Besides reporting on all or partial EMR/EHR systems, physicians reported the computerized functionalities in their practices, according to NCHS. Systems defined as basic include the following functionalities: patient demographic information, patient problem lists, clinical notes, orders for prescriptions and viewing laboratory and imaging results. Systems defined as fully functional include all functionalities of basic systems plus the following: medical history and follow-up, orders for tests, prescription and test orders sent electronically, warnings of drug interactions or contraindications, highlighting of out-of-range test levels and reminders for guideline-based interventions.

In 2008, the survey revealed that about 16.7 percent of physicians reported having systems that met the criteria of a basic system, and about 4.4 percent reported that of a fully functional system. Comparable figures for basic and fully functional systems in the 2007 NAMCS were 11.8 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

According to preliminary estimates from the 2009 mail survey, 43.9 percent of the physicians reported using all or partial EMR/EHR systems (not including systems solely for billing) in their office-based practices, NCHS reported. About 20.5 percent reported having systems that met the criteria of a basic system, and 6.3 percent reported that of a fully functional system.

These data indicate that physicians have been increasingly adopting EMR/EHR systems. From 2007 to 2008, physicians’ use of any EMR system increased by 18.7 percent. Within the same period, the percentage of physicians reporting having systems that met the criteria of a basic system increased by 41.5 percent. The 2009 preliminary estimates did not change significantly from 2008.

Samples of 3,200 and 2,000 physicians were selected for the core in-person NAMCS and the supplemental mail survey, respectively. NCHS conducted the 2008 core NAMCS from Dec. 31, 2007 to Dec. 28, 2008, and the 2008 mail survey from April 2008 through August 2008. Trained field representatives from the U.S. Census Bureau conducted in-person interviews to collect data for the core NAMCS.