Half of all office-based physicians in the US have partially or fully adopted electronic medical/health records, according to recent survey data from the National Center for Health Statistics. A quarter of the physicians had a basic system in place, while 10% of all office-based physicians met the criteria for a fully functioning system [a subset of the basic system].
Another study published by Health Affairs reported that 12% of hospitals had adopted basic or comprehensive electronic health records, based on a 2009 EHR adoption survey conducted by the American Hospital Association. About 2% of hospitals at the time would have met the federal ‘meaningful use’ criteria. Results from a 2010 hospital EHR adoption survey will become available from AHA this spring.
The hospital EHR adoption survey databases are available for purchase from AHA. Custom files and data analyses from the surveys may also be available. For further information, contact the AHA Resource Center at 1-312-422-2050 or rc@aha.org.
Sources:
Hsiao CH and others. Electronic medical record/electronic health record systems of office-based physicians: United States, 2009 and preliminary 2010 state estimates. NCHS Health E-States [National Center for Health Statistics], Dec. 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/emr_ehr_09/emr_ehr_09.htm
Jha AK and others. A progress report on electronic health records in U.S. hospitals. Health Affairs, 29(10): 1951-1957, Aug. 26, 2010 [published online]. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/10/1951.abstract
American Hospital Association. Hospital EHR adoption database. Chicago: Health Forum, 2010. http://www.ahadata.com/ahadata/html/EHRdatabase.html.
Filed under: Electronic health records, Posted by Diana Culbertson | Tagged: EHR, electronic medical records, EMR, information technology, meaningful use, medical practice, Outpatient care |
American Hospital Association Resource Center Blog 
isn’t this part of the new health care law that offices must use now?
My problem is that while ‘adoption’ is reported, effective usage is not. The only way to get a real sense of effective usage will be when we know how many providers are using the system such that they are able to report ‘meaningful use’ of Stage 1 criteria using certified EMR.