Surprising as it may sound, not every physician is ready to ride the bus to electronic medical records. Some have concerns about pricing, setup costs and implementation difficulties while others are not very tech-savvy and cannot handle complex computer systems. But are these the real reasons why they are not switching to healthcare information technology? Could there be some other factors? There might be. Let’s take a look in more detail.
A 2013 Deloitte survey of US physicians finds most of doctors are skeptical about the clinical value of electronic health records and are also concerned about implementation costs. As a result, care coordination via cross-practice clinical data sharing is not widespread. The clinical impact of Health Information Technology (HIT) on population health outcomes is not readily apparent in many communities.
However, it is expected that this skepticism is likely to change due to powerful market forces exerted by health plans. Adoption of HIT is being accelerated by consumers as well. In the first stage of HIT – Wave One – adoption for clinical and administrative improvements is likely to gain traction as the Meaningful Use of EHRs and data sharing results in error reduction and increased physician adherence to evidence-based practices. Both of these results are likely to be accessible to the public in coming years.
In Wave Two, HIT-enabled care coordination connecting patients and providers is expected. This will be in use in the proposed ACO model to manage population health and share risk for savings and outcomes.
This way, the adoption of Health Information Technology remains a work in progress in many communities. Acceleration of HIT adoption is more likely if insurers, employers and consumers reach out to those providers who are using EHRs effectively for care coordination and administrative work reduction. Otherwise, physicians who are not using any information technology system will remain slow in their adoption. They will likely be missing out HIT’s potential to improve safety and outcomes, increase accuracy in diagnosing medical problems, reduce administrative costs and engage patients in meaningful self care.
Physicians who have already adopted EHR systems for their practices are likely to gain more of the market share in the future. Incentive payments for Medicare plans require physicians to show effective care coordination, adherence to evidence-based practices, technology-based patient interaction and reduction in administrative paperwork. The Return on Investment for physicians who have adopted HIT systems is quite high, something which is likely to accelerate adoption. It is all about persuading the “non-adopters” to catch up with technology and get them ready for innovative and profitable avenues.
Another survey found that doctors are slow in their adoption to EHR systems because they believe it will slow them down and will not be able to achieve a substantial financial benefit.
However, physician skepticism about using Health Information Technology to improve patient care and achieve administrative and financial benefits is likely to lose ground amidst the challenges the market presents. If they are to survive, they will have to switch to HIT. The regulatory bodies in the healthcare industry are doing all they can to drive more and more physicians towards using electronic health records with one objective in mind – improve delivery of care to patients and move the industry forward on modern lines through cross-practice clinical data sharing
