Family physicians are "leading the pack" in implementing electronic health records into their practices. That's how Steven Waldren, M.D., assistant director of AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology, interpreted the numbers drawn from AAFP's recently released EHR Survey.
Academy EHR Survey Shows Upward Trend in Implementation
By Sheri Porter
10/21/2005
"Our members are adopting technology in significantly higher numbers than they were in 2003 when we last conducted an EHR survey," said Waldren. "In two years, we've nearly tripled the adoption of EHRs in family medicine."
The survey, which garnered 2,569 responses, was conducted by e-mail and asked only about EHRs, said Waldren. "That means there was a selection bias that drove the numbers up; the Academy adjusted the numbers down to make up for the bias," he said. In 2005, the reported figure of 46 percent implementation was adjusted down to 30 percent. In 2003, the actual survey report of 24 percent implementation was adjusted down to between 10 percent and 15 percent.
As confirmation that the recent 30 percent figure is accurate, Waldren pointed to two paper-based AAFP surveys conducted in 2005 that posed a single EHR question and received a response percentage similar to that of the CHiT survey. In the physician profile survey, which netted 4,400 respondents, 29.3 percent of respondents said they used an EHR; an Academy immunization survey had 4,700 respondents, 30.3 percent of whom said they used an EHR.
Other 2005 CHiT survey highlights:
The survey, which garnered 2,569 responses, was conducted by e-mail and asked only about EHRs, said Waldren. "That means there was a selection bias that drove the numbers up; the Academy adjusted the numbers down to make up for the bias," he said. In 2005, the reported figure of 46 percent implementation was adjusted down to 30 percent. In 2003, the actual survey report of 24 percent implementation was adjusted down to between 10 percent and 15 percent.
As confirmation that the recent 30 percent figure is accurate, Waldren pointed to two paper-based AAFP surveys conducted in 2005 that posed a single EHR question and received a response percentage similar to that of the CHiT survey. In the physician profile survey, which netted 4,400 respondents, 29.3 percent of respondents said they used an EHR; an Academy immunization survey had 4,700 respondents, 30.3 percent of whom said they used an EHR.
Other 2005 CHiT survey highlights:
- 78 percent of respondents said their EHR improved patients' health; the same percentage said they would recommend their EHR system to a colleague.
- 20 percent of respondents said their estimated first-year implementation costs were less than $5,000; 25 percent said those costs were $10,000 to $19,000; a little more than 5 percent estimated costs at $50,000 or more.
- 9 percent of respondents said they thought they would implement an EHR within six months; 35 percent of respondents thought they would do so in one to two years; 8 percent said EHR implementation would take more than two years.
- Nearly 55 percent of respondents called cost the biggest barrier to EHR implementation, and nearly 33 percent cited decreased productivity as a barrier.
- Nearly 85 percent of respondents said that quick access to patient records was the EHR feature that proved most beneficial to their office.
Two other recent surveys, both published in the September/October issue of Health Affairs, reported significantly lower numbers of physician adoption of EHRs than did the CHiT survey.
The first of those two surveys, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and conducted by the Medical Group Management Association Center for Research and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, captured data from more than 3,300 medical group practices. The study reported that just 14.1 percent of all medical group practices used an EHR, and only 12.5 percent of practices with five or fewer full-time physicians used an EHR.
Although the data from the MGMA survey are current, Waldren said the survey population differed from the AAFP survey in that the MGMA survey did not include solo physicians and two-physician partnerships.
The second survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, showed that 17.6 percent of physicians in office-based practices were using an EHR between 2001 and 2003.
Waldren said the data in this survey were old, especially in light of rapid changes in the health information technology field. He also pointed out that the survey looked at primary care providers as a whole and did not break out family physicians as a subgroup.
The first of those two surveys, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and conducted by the Medical Group Management Association Center for Research and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, captured data from more than 3,300 medical group practices. The study reported that just 14.1 percent of all medical group practices used an EHR, and only 12.5 percent of practices with five or fewer full-time physicians used an EHR.
Although the data from the MGMA survey are current, Waldren said the survey population differed from the AAFP survey in that the MGMA survey did not include solo physicians and two-physician partnerships.
The second survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, showed that 17.6 percent of physicians in office-based practices were using an EHR between 2001 and 2003.
Waldren said the data in this survey were old, especially in light of rapid changes in the health information technology field. He also pointed out that the survey looked at primary care providers as a whole and did not break out family physicians as a subgroup.
