Physician group practices' adoption of electronic health records is growing slowly, according to a new Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society survey, Health Data Management reports.
According to the survey, about 30% of physician group practice administrators said they have functional components of an EHR in place at their organization. A similar survey in 2006 found 26% reported having EHR components in place.
Thirteen percent of respondents said they expect to purchase EHR software in the near future, with half of those respondents planning to make the purchase within a year (Health Data Management, 10/30).
According to the survey, EHR adoption rate is higher at larger practices. Forty-seven percent of large practices reported having an EHR system, compared with 34% of medium-sized practices and 24% of small-sized practices.
Physician practices also were more likely to have adopted EHR systems if they were a part of a health care system. Fifty-four percent of physician practices that are part of a health care system reported having an EHR system, compared with 27% of practices that are not part of a health care system (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 10/30).
Cost and lack of interest were the top two barriers to EHR adoption, according to the survey.
The telephone survey of 500 participants was conducted in June by HIMSS Analytics, a unit of HIMSS (Health Data Management, 10/30).
The HIMSS survey is available online (.pdf).