Only 4 Of 10 Doctors Use Electronic Medical Records
A new federal survey released Thursday found that just four in ten U.S. doctors utilize electronic medical records, with many saying their use is only minimal and just four percent reporting that their systems were fully functional. Â
The survey of 2,000 doctors was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), an arm of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and provides a sober indication of just how many U.S. physicians still rely on outdated paper records.
President-elect Barack Obama has said he would make electronic medical records a critical part of his healthcare reform initiative, and has pledged to spend $50 billion over five years to help fund the transition. Indeed, many experts agree that the use of electronic medical records would improve healthcare, prevent errors and reduce costs. However, Mr. Obama said it is not yet clear how such a plan might be funded amid an economic recession, rising unemployment and other factors weighing on the economy.Â
On Thursday, Mr. Obama announced former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle as his Secretary of Health and Human Services and healthcare reform czar.
In conducting its survey, the NCHS mailed questionnaires to 2,000 office-based doctors in the U.S. between April and August of this year.
"In the 2008 mail survey, 38.4 percent of the physicians reported using full or partial electronic medical record systems, not including billing records, in their office-based practices," said the agency in a statement.
"About 20.4 percent reported using a system described as minimally functional and including the following features: orders for prescriptions, orders for tests, viewing laboratory or imaging results, and clinical notes."
In a report released this summer, the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund found that 98 percent of doctors in the Netherlands and 89 percent in Britain use electronic medical records, compared with only 28 percent in the United States.
Among the obstacles in transitioning to electronic medical records are creating a system that would work for a wide variety of doctors’ offices and insurers, but would also protect the privacy of patients.
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