CDC reports EMR adoption up to 38%

January 4, 2009

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducted a mail survey of office-based physicians to obtain a preliminary estimate of EMR use. This estimate will supplement information from the 2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), an annual survey of patient visits to office-based physicians. In this mail survey, 38.4% of physicians reported using full or partial EMRs in their office-based practices. About 20.4% reported using a system described as “minimally functional,” including: orders for prescriptions, orders for tests, viewing laboratory or imaging results, and clinical notes. Comparable figures for the 2006 NAMCS were 29.2% and 12.4%, respectively. According to NCHS, EMRs conforming to certain interoperability standards are defined as electronic health records, either “basic” or “fully functional”. In the 2008 mail survey, 17.0% of physicians reported having “basic” systems, and 4.0% “fully functional” systems. Comparable figures in the 2006 NAMCS were 11.2% and 3.1%, respectively. These data will be important in debates over the need for incentives to accelerate EMR/EHR adoption.

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