State Variation in Electronic Sharing of Information in Physician Offices: United States, 2015

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provides financial incentives to eligible providers using a certified electronic health record (EHR) system.

In 2015, 77.9% of office-based physicians had a certified EHR system, up from 74.1% in 2014. A federal plan to enhance the nation’s health information technology infrastructure was published in 2015 to support information sharing.

A new NCHS report uses the 2015 National Electronic Health Records Survey to describe the extent to which physicians can electronically send, receive, integrate, and search for patient health information.

Findings:

• In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically sent patient health information ranged from 19.4% in Idaho to 56.3% in Arizona.
• In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically received patient health information ranged from 23.6% in Louisiana
  and Mississippi to 65.5% in Wisconsin.
• In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically integrated patient health information from other providers ranged from 18.4% in Alaska to 49.3% in Delaware.
• In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically searched for patient health information ranged from 15.1% in the
  District of Columbia to 61.2% in Oregon.