With ACA deadlines and Meaningful Use incentives in full swing, a lot of changes are in store for EMR users and providers this year.
EHR adoption continues to increase, but Meaningful Use Stage Two looks to be having some issues, and physician attitudes are by-no-means uniform when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of electronic record systems. The numbers below, while not telling the whole story, should give you a pretty good feel for the direction of medical software over the coming year.
Here are the top 15 EMR statistics for 2014:
1. EHR use by office-based physicians rose from 18% in 2001 to 48% in 2009, and finally to 78% in 2013. (Source: CDC)
2. 37% of physicians see EHR as their number one challenge; tied with financial issues as their primary concerns. (Source: Hello Health)
3. 48% of office-based physicians have a system that meets government criteria for a “basic EMR,” up from 11% in 2006. (Source: CDC)
4. EHR adoption is slowing, with an increase of just 6.6% in 2013. This compares to a 15% increase in 2012. (Source: Modern Healthcare)
5. Roughly 60% of physicians say they are satisfied with their EHR system. (Source: Deloitte)
6. 30% of doctors think EHR implantation would hurt practice finances due to higher costs and overhead or productivity decreases. (Source: Hello Health)
7. Use of EHR is associated with significantly higher quality of care for breast cancer screening, Chlamydia screening, colorectal screening, and diabetes testing for hemoglobin. (Source: Journal of General Internal Medicine)
8. While 69% of physicians intend to participate in “meaningful use” incentives only 13% currently have EHR systems that can support Stage 2 for Meaningful Use. (Source: CDC)
9. 67% of physicians report EMRs save them time through e-prescribing, and that EMRs improve care coordination due to interoperability. (Source: Deloitte)
10. Only 23% of solo practitioners are using an EMR, compared to 48% of employed physicians and 83% of HMO-owned practices. (Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association)
11. 51% of physicians who say financial issues are their primary concern felt implementing an EHR would help. (Source: Hello Health)
12. 26% of doctors reported decreased productivity after adopting an EHR, and only 6% claim an EHR system allowed them to earn more money. (Source: Fierce EMR)
13. 55% of doctors think that Meaningful Use requirements will put physician privileges at risk and hurt the hospital-physician relationship. (Source: Deloitte)
14. 54% of physicians are not happy with their EHRs’ interactivity. (Source: Fierce EMR) <<Tweet this stat!
15. Only 45% of independent physicians believe the patient care benefits of an EMR outweigh the costs, while fully 62% of employed physicians do. (Source: athenahealth)
