Trends in Electronic Health Record System Use Among Office-based Physicians: United States, 2007–2012

NCHS has a new report that presents trends in the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by office-based physicians during 2007–2012.  Rates of adoption are compared by selected physician and practice characteristics.

Key Findings from the Report:

• In 2012, 71.8% of office-based physicians reported using any type of EHR system, up from 34.8% in 2007.
• In 2012, 39.6% of physicians had an EHR system with features meeting the criteria of a basic system, up from 11.8% in 2007; 23.5% of office-based physicians had an EHR system with features meeting the criteria of a fully functional system in 2012, up from 3.8% in 2007.
• In 2007, a wide gap existed in use of any type of EHR system between physicians in practices with 11 or more physicians (74.3%) compared with physicians in smaller practices (20.6% among solo practitioners); the gap, however, narrowed during 2007–2012.
• In 2007, no significant gap was observed in adoption of a fully functional system between primary care (4.7%) and nonprimary care physicians (2.8%); the gap, however, widened over time (27.9% compared with 19.4% in 2012).
• The difference in adoption of a fully functional system between physicians in practices with 11 or more physicians compared with solo practitioners was 10.4 percentage points in 2007; the gap widened to 30.6 percentage points in 2012.