08/27/2010
In 2007, 43% of home health and hospice agencies had an electronic health record system, compared with 32.3% in 2000, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Meanwhile, 20.6% of home health and hospice agencies reported using telemedicine in 2007, the study found.
08/18/2010
Twenty-one percent of survey respondents reported using an automated system to enroll patients in health and human services programs, while 38% of respondents said they use a manual process. Respondents cited reduced levels of uncompensated care and saved staff time as the biggest benefits to using IT to enroll patients in social services programs.
08/11/2010
In 2010, 76% of U.S. adults reported that they have looked online for health information, compared with 51% of adults in 2004 and 27% in 1998, according to a new survey. Of the adults who reported looking online for health information, 86% said they were successful and 85% said the health information they found online was reliable.
08/04/2010
Nearly 42% of physicians in 2008 reported having access to electronic prescribing systems in their practices. However, access varied by practice characteristics. For example, 91.5% of physicians in group/staff HMOs reported access to e-prescribing, compared with 30.1% of solo-practice physicians and 43.9% of physicians in hospital-owned practices.
07/28/2010
Eighty-three percent of online registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses report recommending health-related websites to patients in 2010, according to a new report. In comparison, 59% of online physicians say they recommend health-related websites to patients.
07/21/2010
Nearly 90% of health care providers surveyed said certification is important or very important when evaluating ambulatory electronic health record systems, according to a recent survey. Just 2% of health care providers surveyed said certification is not important, while 9% of respondents said they were unsure how important certification is when considering an ambulatory EHR system.
07/14/2010
Ninety-three percent of health IT professionals surveyed believe that clinicians should be able to use electronic prescribing technology to prescribe controlled substances. One-third of survey respondents said that the Drug Enforcement Administration's recent interim final rule addressing e-prescribing for controlled substances would significantly increase the use of e-prescribing.
07/07/2010
Fifty percent of health care CIOs and health IT executives say their organizations will be ready to apply for "meaningful use" incentives by 2011, according to a new survey. Seventy-nine percent said their organizations will be ready to apply for the incentives in 2012, while 89% said their organization will be ready in 2013.
06/30/2010
Seventy-eight percent of U.S. adults say their physicians should have access to information included in their electronic health records, while just 30% believe insurers should have access to information in their EHRs, according to a new survey. Forty-two percent of respondents said they were unsure whether their primary care physician uses an EHR system.
06/23/2010
Thirty-six percent of health IT professionals said the ability to improve patient safety and/or reduce medical errors is the most critical influencer for the use of radio frequency identification tools in health care organizations. Meanwhile, 20% of respondents said inventory management/asset control is the most critical influencer of RFID use, and 19% cited hospital operation improvements.
06/16/2010
Twenty-six percent of U.S. adults said patients have the least to gain from the conversion to electronic health records, according to a new survey. Another 26% of adults said all groups would gain equally from the conversion to EHRs, while 9% of respondents said the federal government had the least to gain from the switch to EHRs.
06/10/2010
According to a recent survey, 38% of U.S. adults have researched a specific medical condition online in the past year, while 26% have researched a specific drug or medication online and 10% have researched health insurance providers online. The survey also found that 7% of U.S. adults have researched health care quality online and 5% have gone online for health care cost information.
06/02/2010
In 2009, 102.3 million U.S. adults went online for prescription drug information, up from 93.5 million U.S. adults in 2008 and 45.7 million U.S. adults in 2004, according to a Manhattan Research survey. Researchers cite health care costs and older consumers becoming more comfortable with the Internet as some of the reasons for the increase.
05/26/2010
Fourteen percent of parents surveyed said they are able communicate online or via e-mail with their children's health care providers regarding minor illnesses or injuries, while 47% said such access would be very helpful, according to a recent survey. Meanwhile, 11% of parents say they can request prescription refills online and 9% say they can schedule appointments online.
05/20/2010
A new survey finds that 46% of women report using a Google search the last time they needed information on a health care issue, compared with 28% of men. Sixty-three percent of women said they believed health information found through a Google search was reliable, compared with 53% of men.