Physician Practices Increasingly Accepting HIEs, Retooling EHRs

Nearly half of physician practices plan to join a health information exchange, while more than one-third of practices plan to purchase a new electronic health record system, or replace or upgrade their existing EHR system, according to a study by HIMSS Analytics, InformationWeek reports.

For the study, HIMSS Analytics -- the research arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society -- surveyed 846 physician practices.

Health Information Exchange Findings

Of the 46% physician practices that said they plan to join an HIE:

• 19% preferred a state-run HIE;
• 16% preferred an exchange connected to a hospital or health care system; and
• 11% preferred a regional exchange.

About 37% of respondents said they do not plan to join an HIE, while 17% already belong to an exchange or were unsure about joining one.

Hospital-owned groups were more likely than privately owned practices to join an exchange, with 62% of hospital-owned groups planning to join, compared with 39% of private practices.

EHR Findings

The study also found that one-third of practices plan to replace, upgrade or purchase a new EHR system.

Drivers of EHR purchases varied among practices. For example,  35% of physician groups with more than 100 doctors reported that the ability to exchange patient data among facilities was the biggest driver, compared with 17% of all practices.

Meanwhile, increasing efficiency was the biggest drive for practices with three to 10 doctors (Terry, InformationWeek, 6/6).

Comments

Brendan FitzGerald, research director of HIMSS Analytics, said the study found a "high [EHR] adoption rate across not only hospital-owned but free-standing physician practices as well," adding, "That's a positive for the industry."

In addition, "[a]s we get further down the road of meeting meaningful use ... more and more folks are leaning toward joining a health information exchange," FitzGerald said.

He said the findings show that most providers are "enthusiastically" embracing HIE adoption.

"Overall there is still that fine tuning and work that needs to be done until physician practices and hospitals alike are happy," FitzGerald said (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 6/6).

Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2013/6/7/physician-practices-increasingly-accepting-hies-retooling-ehrs.aspx#ixzz2VYtb7dBD

Survey Indicates Growing Demand for Mobile EHR Apps

by Gabriel Perna, Healthcare Informatics

There is a growing market for mobile device electronic health record (EHR) applications as physician users look to replace current ineffective systems, according to recent research from Black Book Rankings, a Clearwater, Fla.-based research firm.

One-in-five physician users surveyed by Black Book indicated that they were highly likely to shift EHR systems after a disappointing result from a first vendor. Mobile apps, the Black Book researchers say, have been added to the list of physician must-haves in the replacement market demand. Black Book found that 122 vendors in the industry are expected to introduce fully functional mobile access and/or iPad native versions of their EHR products by the end of 2013. An additional 135 vendors expect to have a mobile strategy on the horizon.

“A mandate has been issued and progressive vendors are reacting,” stated Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book Research. “A full 100 percent of practices participating in the follow up poll expect EHR systems that allow access to patient data wherever physicians are providing or reviewing care.“

The market for mobile EHR systems, and more mobile health (mHealth) clinical applications overall, isn’t just spurred by physicians. In a survey of hospital CIOs, Black Book found that mobile applications was ranked above cloud computing and clinical analytics as well as business intelligence in upcoming technology urgencies.

“The business priorities of operational results and reducing costs, combined with the digital management requirements for records, access, identity and risk have healthcare information executives seeking broader EHR solutions with useful mobile applications,” Brown said.

Current use of clinical mobile applications vs. desired use is a wide gap, according to the findings of the survey. Eighty-three percent of office-based physicians indicated they would use mobile EHR functionalities to update patient charts, check labs and order medications immediately if available to them via their current EHR. However, only eight percent of office-based physicians use a mobile device for accessing records, ordering tests, or electronic prescribing.

Furthermore, while 89 percent of primary care and internal medicine doctors use smart phones to primarily communicate with staff, less than one percent estimated they maximized the use of their mobile clinical and business applications.

In terms of those who do use mobile EHR applications, the biggest criticisms have to do with the small screen size of smartphones (95 percent indicated this was an issue). Eighty-eight percent said they had difficulties in the ease of movement within the chart, while 71 percent do not appreciate non-optimized touch screens. Brown said that most respondents surveyed favored mobile applications that focus onpatient data and the core parts of a medical practice most needed when the physician is away from the office. Related, the highest ranked EHR mobile applications had the ability to remotely do things like review charts, update charts, assign tasks, view schedules and appointments, and send messages to practice staff.

In terms of current products, Mountain View, California-based drchrono, scored  the highest customer satisfaction in this area. drchrono was one of Healthcare Informatics’ up-and-comers.