Physician EHR adoption jumps 21% in 2013

Adoption of basic electronic health record (EHR) systems by office-based physicians increased 21% from 2012 to 2013, according to an issue brief from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, 48.1% of physicians had basic EHRs, versus 39.6% in 2012. The NCHS defines basic EHR systems as those that have functions for patient history and demographics, patient problem lists, physician clinical notes, comprehensive lists of patient medications and allergies, computerized orders for prescriptions, and the ability to view lab and imaging results electronically. Last year, 78% of office-based physicians used some kind of EHR (basic or otherwise), versus almost 72% in 2012, according to the brief. That means they had some kind of electronic information system used for purposes other than billing.

Source: InformationWeek