Electronic Medical Record/Electronic Health Record Use by Office-based Physicians: United States, 2008 and Preliminary 2009

In December 2009, The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported in an annual “national ambulatory medical care survey” physicians use of EMR/EHR. The survey asked the question, “Does this practice use electronic medical records or electronic health records (not including billing records)?”  This is a summary of the NCHS findings:

Percentage of Physicians Using EMR/EHR (2008 to 2009)
	2007	2008	2009 (estimated)
Partial Systems	34.8%	41.5%	43.9%
Basic system	11.8%	16.7%	20.5%
Fully Functional Systems	3.8%	4.4%	6.3%

Basic System: patient demographic information, patient problem lists, clinical notes, orders for prescriptions, and viewing laboratory and imaging results
Fully functional: all functionality of basic systems plus: medical history and follow-up, orders for tests, prescription and test orders sent electronically, warnings of drug interactions or contraindications, highlighting of out-of-range test levels, and reminders for guideline-based interventions.

NCHS Health E-Stat:   "Electronic Medical Record/Electronic Health Record Use by Office-based Physicians: United States, 2008 and Preliminary 2009"