Physician Office Usage of Electronic Healthcare Records Software

EHR adoption rate in U.S. physician practices is 36.1 percent, a 3.2 percent increase over one year ago, according to a report from health IT company SK&A, a Cegedim company.

From their press release:

As healthcare providers make preparations to implement EHR solutions and qualify for federal incentives outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, SK&A, A Cegedim Company, today released its updated "Physician Office Usage of Electronic Healthcare Records Software" report, which shows a 36.1% EHR adoption rate in U.S. medical offices -- a 3.2% increase since the February 2009 version of the study.
Like its predecessor study, the latest report identifies physician adoption rates by office size, practice size, practice specialties, patient volume, ownership, geography and other variables. This updated study also measures the level of software functionality available to and being utilized by physicians in medical offices to support the government's newly defined "meaningful use" criteria.

SK&A's study, which was based on completed telephone surveys with 180,000 U.S. physician offices, shows that 36.1% of physician offices are using EHR systems -- a 3.2% increase in usage since the 2009 report's adoption rate of 32.9%. Trends from the study show:

-- Physicians primarily use EHR systems for electronic notes (28.3%), as opposed to electronic labs/x-rays and electronic 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% and 50.2%, respectively. On the contrary, non-hospital-owned and non-health-system-owned sites have adoption rates of 34.4% and 34.2%, respectively.

-- The specialty areas with the highest adoption rates include dialysis, critical care medicine and radiology. Those specialties with the lowest adoption rates include allergy/immunology, general surgery and general practice.

Editor's Note: For a copy of the summary findings for publication, please contact Jack Schember, SK&A Vice President of Marketing, at 800-752-5478, ext. 1259.

via skainfo.com