Study: EHR adoption held back by multiple issues

A recent study of physician EHR adoption has found that not only price, but also concerns about productivity loss and technical issues are holding back adoption of EHRs within individual physician practices. The study, which was published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, surveyed 1,345 Massachusetts physicians to learn what was holding back EHRs adoption in their practices. One the one hand, the EHR adoption rate for individual physicians in Massachusetts is much higher than the national average, standing at 45 percent vs. the nationwide average of 18 percent. However, that higher-than normal average is driven in large part by the efforts of large systems like Partner HealthCare, CareGroup and Harvard Vanguard to bring their physicians on board. Outside of these systems, physician EHR adoption remains sluggish. Predictably, about 84 percent of physicians surveyed said that start-up financial costs as barriers, but nearly as many (81 percent) were worried about having an EHR introduction undercut their productivity. Others said they were worried about their own lack of computer skills and technical support within their offices.

To get the story on this research:
- read this Health IT World article

Related Article:
EHRs boost quality, raise costs at community clinics. Report

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