EMR and HIE use increases among U.S. doctors, Accenture annual survey finds.
The vast majority of U.S. doctors (93 percent) reported actively using electronic medical records (EMR) in an annual survey by Accenture of 3,700 physicians in eight countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain and the United States. And, showcasing the growing importance of health information exchange(HIE), nearly half (45 percent) of doctors surveyed said they regularly access clinical data outside their own organization, representing a 32 percent annual increase.
The Accenture survey compares findings from last year’s survey to reveal prevailing perceptions among doctors today, and show trends across areas of healthcare IT. Based on this year’s findings that show increasing levels of adoption of EMR and HIE, the digital doctor is in—and is here to stay.
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“U.S. doctors are increasingly embracing EMR and HIE, which enables virtual integration outside a single medical office,” said Mark Knickrehm, Accenture’s global managing director who leads the company’s health business. “This growing trend strongly supports a patient-centered approach to care and reinforces the progress physicians are making as they prepare to meet the Meaningful Use guidelines required by the Affordable Care Act.”
Increasing their overall productivity, U.S. doctors also reported a 32 percent annual increase in the routine use of healthcare IT capabilities (see chart below) compared to an increase of 15 percent, among doctors in the other countries surveyed. Most significantly, U.S. doctors reported the highest routine use of two IT capabilities: e-prescribing (65 percent) and entering patient notes into electronic medical records (78 percent), which represent a 34 percent annual increase.
