Community Health Centers Near 90% EHR Adoption

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

The vast majority of community health centers funded by the federal government used EHRs last year.

According to the ONC, 87.8 percent of federally funded community health centers used EHR systems in 2013. Recently released data shows EHR adoption has increased from 79.3 percent in 2012.

In a blog post for Health IT Buzz, Kerry Souza, ScD, MPH, and Michael Wittie, MPH, emphasize the importance of these centers, noting, “Federally funded health centers provided care to more than 21.7 million patients (more than 62 percent of whom were racial/ethnic minorities, and almost 35 percent of whom are uninsured) in 2013.”

iHealth Beat reports that of the health centers with EHRs:

• 99.9 percent included patient history and demographics
• 99.9 percent included clinical notes
• 99.9 percent had protections in place for electronic health data
• 99.5 percent included electronic prescription capabilities
• 99.5 percent could provide clinical summaries for patients on each provider visit
• 98.6 percent included computerized provider order entry for lab tests
• 97.2 percent included reminders for guidance-based interventions or screening tests
• 95.9 percent could provide patients with a copy of their medical data upon request
• 85.9 percent could electronically share clinical data among care providers and patient-authorized entities
• 80.3 percent included CPOE for radiology tests
• 74.9 percent could electronically report data to immunization registries
• 48.3 percent can electronically report notifiable diseases

“Health centers are not just using health IT, they are using it as part of clinical transformation: more than 54 percent of centers achieved recognition as Patient Centered Medical Homes, a key indicator of high-quality care,” write Souza and Wittie.

The CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) EHR Working Group is working with community health centers to incorporate patient work data into EHR systems. According to the blog, the group is working to “ensure that the patient work information most pertinent to patient care and population health is included in EHRs in a useful and retrievable manner.”

EHR Intelligence reports that of the 1,202 grantees, only 50 reported not having an electronic record system in place.