In the United States, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are meant to increase momentum behind the development of broadly interconnected and interoperable electronic medical records (EMRs). HITECH provides incentives for health care providers that set up and demonstrate “meaningful use.” It also stipulates eventual penalties for those that do not.
While calculated to bring long-term improvements to the practice of medicine, the impending changes can be significant. Not surprisingly, they have inspired confusion and apprehension among the hundreds of thousands of solo and small-group practices that will potentially be affected.
To determine current attitudes, expectations, concerns and experiences with regard to EMR systems, the Accenture Institute for Health & Public Service Value surveyed more than 1,000 physicians in small practices across the United States.
In EMRs in Small Physicians’ Practices: Insights into a Fast-Approaching Future, we provide an overview and analysis of the key findings:
- Adoption of EMR in ambulatory care practices should happen much faster than the rate until now.
- Physicians are looking to hospitals as potential partners in their EMR planning.
- The next wave of EMR users expects both considerable implementation challenges and greater returns on their investment.
- Greater EMR use could bring greater benefits.