Recent Deloitte physician survey reveals overall access to, or use of patient engagement support tools is low among physicians.
Based on an online survey of 613 U.S. primary care and specialist physicians, the report assesses physicians’ current use and overall views of electronic health records (EHRs), patient support tools, and mobile health technologies.
With patient engagement playing an increasing role in Meaningful Use requirements, providers must improve their patient interactions to ensure consumers are an active participant in their own care management. Despite the Meaningful Use incentives, physicians still wane in utilizing patient support tools.
According to the survey, the use of patient support tools by physicians in practices with an EHR meeting Meaningful Use stage 1 increased compared to practices that has not meet MU stage 1 requirements.
Use of patient support tools | Practice has an EHR meeting MU Stage 1 requirements | Practice does not have an EHR meeting MU Stage 1 requirements |
Communicate with consumers using email/texts | 37% | 27% |
Online consumer visit scheduling/test results access | 31% | 10% |
Direct consumers to online health care content | 30% | 17% |
Online consumer prescription refills | 26% | 5% |
Mobile consumer visit scheduling, test results and medical records access, or payment-making | 19% | 2% |
Telemedicine used for follow-up or diagnostic visits with consumers | 18% | 10% |
Online prices for routine transactions for consumers | 5% | 1% |
Overall report key findings:
- 73% of U.S. physicians believe that health IT adoption will improve care quality in the long run
- 71% of believe that health IT adoption ultimately will result in higher costs
- About 60% believe that hospital-physician relationships will suffer as hospitals comply with the requirements of the meaningful use program.
Mobile health report key findings:
- 43 percent of doctors use smartphones or tablets for clinical purposes
- 44 percent of doctors said that their work doesn’t provide mobile devices and they’re unwilling to use their own,
- 29 percent were concerned about patient privacy
- 26 percent said the apps and programs available weren’t suited to their needs
- 22 percent of the non-users indicated a plan to use mobile health technology in the future
To learn more, please download the report
