The Rise of Electronic Health Record Adoption Among Family Physicians

The Article in Brief

The Rise of Electronic Health Record Adoption Among Family Physicians

Imam M. Xierali , and colleagues

Background Electronic health records (EHRs) are generally expected to improve the quality of health care, lower health care costs, and provide patients with more involvement in their own health care. Achieving these benefits, however, depends on clinicians' use of the technology. This study estimates uptake of EHRs by US family physicians and other outpatient doctors, and looks at EHR adoption by state.

What This Study Found Adoption of electronic health records by family physicians has doubled since 2005, reaching 68 percent nationally in 2011. Family physicians are adopting electronic health records at a higher rate than other office-based physicians and are likely to exceed 80 percent penetration by 2013 if the current trend continues. State-level analysis, however, indicates significant variation in EHR adoption, from a low of 44 percent in North Carolina to a high of 88 percent in Hawaii, according to 1 of 2 data sets, and a low of 47 percent in North Dakota and a high of 95 percent in Utah, according to another. These findings point to important geographical gaps that may result from significant variation in states' commitment to adopting health information technology. States with higher EHR adoption among family physicians generally have higher EHR adoption for other office-based physicians, consistent with a state-level effect.

Implications

• The authors call for further research and policy making to address the significant variability between states.