News Feature | February 15, 2016

3 Of 4 Doctors Use Certified EHRs

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Patients Like Doctors Who email

According to the CDC, more than 74 percent of office based physicians have implemented certified EHRs.

In a recent data brief, the CDC noted that in 2014, 74.1 percent of office-based physicians had a certified EHR system, up from 67.5 percent in 2013.

While the number is significant, Fierce EMR issues a reminder that these numbers varied widely by state. For example, 58.8 percent of physicians in Alaska use certified EHRs, but 88.6 percent of those in Minnesota also do so, exceeding the national average. Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, and South Dakota also had higher than average adoption rates.

The study also discovered the percentage of primary care physicians with certified EHR systems in 2013 (72.1 percent) and 2014 (78.6 percent) exceeded that for non-primary care specialists in both years (63.1 percent and 70.3 percent, respectively).

Interestingly, one-third of office-based physicians with a certified EHR system reported to the CDC that they had shared patient health information with ambulatory providers outside their practice or with unaffiliated hospitals. Like adoption, electronic sharing varied by state as well. The percentage of physicians with a certified EHR system who shared patient health information electronically with external providers ranged from 17.7 percent in New Jersey to 58.8 percent in North Dakota. Additionally, about 15 percent of physicians with a certified EHR system electronically shared patient information with home health, long-term care, or behavioral health providers.

“The HITECH Act of 2009 gave eligible physicians monetary incentives to adopt a certified EHR system and may be one of the reasons for the continued rise in physician adoption of these systems,” notes the data brief. “HITECH provides funding to states to establish infrastructure that enables providers to share patient health information electronically. Physicians with a certified EHR system were sharing information in greater numbers than physicians without a certified EHR system.”