Large Physician Offices Adopt EHR Faster Than Smaller Practices

When it comes to medical practices adopting electronic health record (EHR) systems, size matters.

A recent report from SK&A, a leading provider of healthcare information solutions and research, discovered a correlation between the size of a practice and the likelihood of EHR adoption.

The “Physician Office Usage of Electronic Health Records Software” report found that offices with more than 26 physicians have an adoption rate of 75.5 percent, while single-physician practices had a 30.8-percent adoption rate.

Telephone surveys of 237,562 US medical sites were compiled for the report, which found an overall EHR adoption rate of 40.4 percent.

The report identified an increase in EHR adoption in direct relation to an increase in daily patient volume. Practices seeing up to 50 patients daily had an EHR adoption rate of 36 percent, while practices seeing over 100 patients daily had a rate of 66.1 percent.

EHR Adoption Factors
A more in-depth survey of EHR adoption by SK&A, titled “EHR Adoption in Medical Offices: Looking Forward,” surveyed 40,000 US medical sites on topics such as adoption timeframe, buying factors, primary decision-makers and government incentive awareness uncovered some troubling information gaps.

While the first SK&A report paints an optimistic picture for physicians who’ve already adopted an EHR system, the more detailed surveys give some insight into the confusion surrounding future EHR adoption and implementation.

The survey found that 72.6 percent of physician practices do not have a set timeframe for EHR adoption and 20.8 percent of practices are unaware of government incentives for EHR adoption.

Additionally, 70.7 of physician offices did not identify a single major buying factor for an EHR system, with the most important factor sited being cost (16.7 percent).

With all of the transitions happening in health care, it’s not surprising there seems to be a lack of understanding about EHR implementation and functionality.

Large physician practices may have more resources and time to put into the search for an appropriate EHR system, but all practices will need to implement EHR systems regardless of size to make health care more effective and affordable.

How is your practice handling the search for and adoption of an EHR system?

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