Report from TechnologyAdvice explores EHR adoption trends in the Nashville market
Earlier this year, the National Center for Healthcare Statistics (NCHS) released a report stating 78 percent of office-based physicians had adopted electronic medical records in 2013. But this same report noted a wide regional variance in EHR adoption, with New Jersey representing the low end with 66 percent adoption and Minnesota the high end with 94 percent adoption.
Background
Given this regional variance, TechnologyAdvice decided to survey the city of Nashville, one of the fastest growing healthcare markets in the country and uncover how EHR adoption was doing in a city renowned for healthcare innovation and investment. Nashville is home to 15 publicly traded healthcare companies and more than 300 private and public healthcare organizations, making the city one of the nation’s leaders in healthcare innovation, investment, and job growth. The Nashville Healthcare Council estimates that in 2008, the city’s healthcare industry accounted for $61 billion in revenue and 375,000 jobs globally.
They also wanted to test the regional variation of other NCHS data, like the 69 percent of providers who reported that they had already applied for the EHR incentives program or planned on applying.
Here are 12 insightful EHR adoption trends in Nashville revealed from this report:
1. eClinicalWorks, Practice Fusion, NextGen, AllScripts, and AthenaClinicals are the top five vendors in the Nashville market. Epic, the number one national electronic medical record vendor is absent from this list.
2. Though Epic is considered a market leader, its price is still a stumbling block for many healthcare providers, both in ambulatory and in-patient settings in the region.
3. Nashville healthcare providers are significantly more satisfied with their EHR programs than providers nationwide
4. 16 percent of providers in Nashville have switched their EHRs
5. The EHR Adoption rate among certain specialities is significantly higher than national averages
6. Cost appears to be the number one consideration for Nashville EHR buyers
7. Though Meaningful Use incentive payments may supply significant funds for EHR adoption, providers in the city are still most concerned about upfront costs.
8. Nashville’s current EHR adoption hovers around 74 percent, with a complementary 26 percent of office-based physicians having failed to adopt an electronic system for managing their medical records. This falls just below the national average of 78 percent.
9. Nashville reported a high EHR adoption rate of dermatologists in particular, which tied for the highest adoption rate among specialists. This above average adoption could be influenced by the Nashville patient population, or by the local dermatology community.
10. 36 percent of healthcare organizations in Nashville confirmed that they would be participating in either stage 1 or stage 2 of Meaningful Use this year, while 6 percent confirmed that they would not be participating. A substantial 58 percent were unsure if they would participate in the federal incentives program this year.
11. 27 percent of healthcare organizations rated their EHR a 10 out of 10, while 13 percent rated their system a 9/10. Though little significant research exists that quantifies user satisfaction with EHRs in this manner, one can average physician satisfaction from KLAS’s 2012 survey to arrive at a satisfaction score of 6.6. 6 The average satisfaction score in Nashville is 8.26.
12. The majority of healthcare organizations in Nashville were using their second EHR system, with .5 percent on their third platform.
Conclusion
Nashville’s EHR adoption rate is within the margin of error of the national average reported by the CDC, but significantly below the 69 percent reported attestation rate. However, studies show that location plays a huge role in adoption numbers, and Nashville remains on the high end of the spectrum. The primary factor in EHR selection among Nashville practices appears to be price.
For more information on this report, visit http://technologyadvice.com/ehr-emr/blog/nashville-ehr-report/
