Chronic Disease Care

Thursday, June 16, 2011

New Study Finds Link Between Use of EHRs, Better Diabetes Care

About 51% of patients with diabetes who received treatment at facilities with electronic health record systems received all necessary care, compared with 7% of patients with diabetes who received treatment at facilities with paper-based systems, according to a report from Better Health Greater Cleveland, Health Data Management reports (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/15).

Better Health Greater Cleveland is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality initiative. RWJF published a brief on the results of the Cleveland study.

According to the report, the percentage of patients with diabetes who achieved positive outcomes for certain measures was 44% among those who received care in EHR-equipped settings, compared with 16% among those who received care in paper-based settings (Simmons, FierceEMR, 6/15).  

The RWJF brief states, "For both care and outcomes, patients treated at practices with EHRs far outpaced those in paper practices across all insurance types" (Health Data Management, 6/15).



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