Many more doctors using electronic health records
January 15, 2013 by Denise Mann, Healthday Reporter in Health
Rate doubled among family physicians between 2005 and 2011, study finds.
(HealthDay)—More than two-thirds of family doctors now use electronic health records, and the percentage doing so doubled between 2005 and 2011, a new study finds.
If the trend continues, 80 percent of family doctors—the largest group of primary care physicians—will be using electronic records by 2013, the researchers predicted.
The findings provide "some encouragement that we have passed a critical threshold," said study author Dr. Andrew Bazemore, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care, in Washington, D.C. "The significant majority of primary care practitioners appear to be using digital medical records in some form or fashion."
The promises of electronic record-keeping include improved medical care and long-term savings. However, many doctors were slow to adopt these records because of the high cost and the complexity of converting paper files. There were also privacy concerns.
"We are not there yet," Bazemore added. "More work is needed, including better information from all of the states."
The Obama administration has offered incentives to doctors who adopt electronic health records, and penalties to those who do not.
For the study, researchers mined two national data sets to see how many family doctors were using electronic health records, how this number changed over time, and how it compared to use by specialists. Their findings appear in the January-February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Nationally, 68 percent of family doctors were using electronic health records in 2011, they found. Rates varied by state, with a low of about 47 percent in North Dakota and a high of nearly 95 percent in Utah.
Dr. Michael Oppenheim, vice president and chief medical information officer for North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., said electronic record-keeping streamlines medical care.
These records "eliminate handwriting errors, and help with planning and caring for patients with chronic medical problems," Oppenheim said. Plus, the files can be accessed by a doctor when the initial provider is unavailable, he said.
Electronic health records also save money in the long term, he noted. "If a patient has a complaint and just had a blood test, and then shows up at the ER (emergency room) with the same complaint, the ER doctor can access the record and not reorder the same test," he said.
Oppenheim said medical penalties are driving adoption of e-records, but there is still some hesitancy. "Doctors are nervous about the cost and worried about how it will affect their practice," he said. "The conversion process is complex."
Doctors can do it themselves or outsource the system. "You pay in productivity or dollars," he said.
Electronic health records are good news for all involved, agreed Dr. Adam Szerencsy, an internist at New York University Medical Center in New York City and the Epic Medical Director there. Epic is NYU's electronic health record system.
When the concept first surfaced, many patients were concerned about their privacy. Today's electronic health records are secure and often have protocols attached to make sure that they don't fall into the wrong hands, he explained.
A key reason that family doctors are leading the transition is that government incentives make it a little more lucrative for family practitioners than specialists, he said.
Also, "primary care doctors manage patients over time, while subspecialists usually don't," Szerencsy said. For example, a surgeon may treat appendicitis, and then the case is closed.
The Holy Grail is thought to be a universal health record where doctors everywhere can access patient records. "We are getting closer," Szerencsy said. "Within the next couple of years, electronic health records will explode across the board."
More information: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about electronic health records.
Journal reference:
Annals of Family Medicine
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
-
E-records linked to fewer malpractice claims
Jun 26, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
No more dithering on e-health
Mar 01, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Electronic health records could improve care for type 2 diabetics
Jan 25, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
U.S. doctors embracing electronic health records: survey
Jul 17, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Report: Electronic health records still need work
Jan 27, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Driving and hands-free talking lead to spike in errors, study shows
Talking on a hands-free device while behind the wheel can lead to a sharp increase in errors that could imperil other drivers on the road, according to new research from the University of Alberta.
Health
8 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
About one in four uninsured could be excluded from ACA
(HealthDay)—More than one in four of those eligible for new premium assistance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) do not have a checking account and will not be able to receive premiums from ...
Health
10 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Audiologists recommend smart phone apps to monitor noise levels
After studying noise in one French Quarter neighborhood of New Orleans to determine whether or not noise levels exceeded municipal ordinances, Annette Hurley, PhD, Assistant Professor of Audiology at LSU Health Sciences Center ...
Health
12 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Young children who miss well-child visits are more likely to be hospitalized
Young children who missed more than half of recommended well-child visits had up to twice the risk of hospitalization compared to children who attended most of their visits, according to a study published today in the American Jo ...
Health
12 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Do doctors understand the individualisation of treatments?
The individualisation of drug treatments to support patients to self-manage their conditions is a concept that sits at the heart of policy, but a recent study in BMJ Open shows that there is no concrete defini ...
Health
14 hours ago |
3 / 5 (1) |
0
Engineered cytomegalovirus protects monkeys from HIV equivalent
(Medical Xpress)—A new study by researchers in the US has shown that an ancient virus can be modified to help in the fight against the simian immunodeficiency virus SIV, which is the equivalent in monkeys ...
Researchers identify first drug targets in childhood genetic tumor disorder
Two mutations central to the development of infantile myofibromatosis (IM)—a disorder characterized by multiple tumors involving the skin, bone, and soft tissue—may provide new therapeutic targets, according to researchers ...
Hormone levels may provide key to understanding psychological disorders in women
Women at a particular stage in their monthly menstrual cycle may be more vulnerable to some of the psychological side-effects associated with stressful experiences, according to a study from UCL.
Going live: Immune cell activation in multiple sclerosis
Biological processes are generally based on events at the molecular and cellular level. To understand what happens in the course of infections, diseases or normal bodily functions, scientists would need to ...
Help at hand for people with schizophrenia
How can healthy people who hear voices help schizophrenics? Finding the answer for this is at the centre of research conducted at the University of Bergen.
Depression raises diabetics' risk of severe low blood sugar episodes
(Medical Xpress)—Patients with diabetes who are depressed are much more likely to develop episodes of dangerously low blood sugars, or hypoglycemia, than are those who are not depressed, a new study has ...