EHR adoption among integrated health systems were substantially higher than their non-health systems owned counterparts, according to a new report by SK&A, a leading provider of healthcare information solutions and research. Based on an ongoing telephone survey of 270,036 U.S. medical sites, EHR adoption for integrated health systems jumped to 71.4-percent from 63.4-percent a year ago.
The annual “Physician Office Usage of Electronic Health Records Software” report revealed that physician office usage of EHRs jumped more than 10 percentage points in solo and smaller practices, and implementation continues to increase across the board for all U.S. offices from 2013 to 2014.
Other key findings include:
• SK&A’s report showed an overall EHR adoption rate of 61 percent, up from 50.3 percent from the prior year.
• The adoption rate for single-doctor offices grew 11.4 percentage points, from 42.3 percent to 53.7 percent, while the adoption rate for offices with 26 or more doctors increased only 1.6 percentage points, from 75.9 percent to 77.5 percent.
• EHR adoption rises as the number of physicians practicing at each site rises. Offices with three to five practicing physicians had 69.6-percent adoption, while offices with eleven to twenty-five practicing physicians had 78.1-percent adoption.
• EHR adoption rises as the number of exam rooms at each site rises. Offices with one exam room had 39.7-percent adoption, while offices with 11-plus exam rooms had 74.8-percent adoption.
• EHR adoption rises as the average daily patient volume at each site rises. Offices with average daily patient volumes of one to fifty patients had 57.5-percent adoption, while offices with 101-plus patients had 76.3-percent adoption.
• Physician specialties with the highest adoption rates are dialysis (80.6%), internal medicine/pediatrics (75.8%), nephrology (70.5%), and pathology (69.4%).
• Top five states for EHR adoption are Utah (71.6%), South Dakota (71.2%), Wyoming (71.0%), Iowa (70.8%), and North Dakota (69.2%).
