Heart docs, neurologists lead specialists in EHR adoption | Healthcare Dive

• Office-based cardiologists have the highest rate of EHR adoption, at 95.6%, followed by neurologists, at 94.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Electronic Health Records Adoption Survey.
• Urologists, who rank third for EHR use at 94%, have the highest percentage of certified systems of any medical specialty — 92.6%.  
• Other areas with strong adoption rates are general surgery (93.8%), orthopedic surgery (93.2%) and general/family practice (92.7%). Psychiatrists are the least likely to use EHRs, with just 61.3% saying they have a system.

Overall, 86.9% of office-based physicians in the U.S. use some form of EHR. State by state, usage rates range from a high of 98.8% in Delaware to 74.8% in Louisiana, the report shows. In all, 19 states had physician use rates of 90% or above.

 The survey reflects the growing role that EHRs play in health care today. According to a survey released last summer by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, 96% of nonfederal acute care hospitals had a certified EHR system in 2015, and 84% had at least basic EHR technology. The survey also showed that eight in 10 small, rural and critical access hospitals are using EHRs. As in the office-based setting, psychiatric hospitals have among the lowest adoption rates — 55% versus 84% for general hospitals.

Studies have linked EHRs to increasing rates of physician burnout in this country. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that doctors spend roughly half (49.2%) of their workday on EHR and administrative tasks, versus 27% seeing patients.

Physicians' satisfaction with electronic health record (EHR) systems has declined by nearly 30 percentage points over the last five years, according to a survey released this week.

This has a major negative impact on patient care, thereby reducing the number of patient encounters and/or lengthening a typical work day.  In today's world of increasing patient eligibility with the Affordable Care Act it may not be a sustainable way of practicing. Fewer providers may accept the penalties for non compliance just because it is expensive and unobtainable.  The opinion on this is uniform by most physicians as shown in many studies.







Heart docs, neurologists lead specialists in EHR adoption | Health care Dive