Fact: Healthcare is one of the least automated industries along with Education, Construction and Retail.
Fact: In 2006, there were over 1.5 million injuries caused by adverse drug events
Fact: As of 2002 less than 3 percent of hospitals had a true EMR
Fact: A recent survey done by Medical Economics of 1900 physicians, published on Jan 21, 2005 showed that 15% of the physicians were using an EMR, 23% of physicians who did not have an EMR stated that they were planning on purchasing an EMR by the end of 2005.
Fact: There are over 200 EMR software vendors in the industry.
Fact: Recent data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) indicated that one-quarter of office-based physicians report using fully or partially electronic medical record systems (EMR) in 2005, a 31% increase from the 18.2 percent reported in the 2001 survey.4
Fact: An authoritative study from the Center for IT Leadership estimates savings at a staggering $78 billion a year just from better information exchange.
The healthcare industry is among the least automated industries in the nation. Studies have estimated that the healthcare industry as a whole is almost 20 years behind the rest of the nation’s industries. Limitations in software, hardware and networking technologies has made EMR difficult to affordably implement in small, budget-conscience and multi-location healthcare organizations .Smaller doctors offices (1-10 physicians) have been the slowest adopters of Electronic Medical Records. This can be attributed to a number of reasons:
Lack of technology
• Poor software flexibility and customization capabilities due to out-dated programming technology
• Poor mobile hardware solutions
• Lack of good/affordable high-speed internet solutions
Limitations in software, hardware and networking technologies has made EMR difficult to affordably implement in small, budget-conscience and multi-location healthcare organizations. We recently study of over 150 EMR vendors showed that there are now over 8 EMR vendors with software developed entirely using Java technology and 21 vendors with software developed using primarily .NET technology, many of which being upgraded from Visual Basic.
Lack of infrastructure
• Source systems such as laboratory, pharmacy, radiology have only recently permitted integration via HL7 interfaces with physician offices
• Hospital integration with healthcare organizations in their region
Lack of standards
• Diverse payer groups
• Lack of integration standards such as HL7 messaging standards and EDI
• Little government support
• Limited documentation standards
• EMR interoperability standards
EMR Adoption by size and specialty
% using EMRs |
By specialty |
By age |
By practice size |
| FPs/GPs |
20% |
Under 35 |
27% |
Solo |
10% |
| Internists |
22 |
35-44 |
20 |
2 doctors |
13 |
| Ob/Gyns |
12 |
45-54 |
18 |
3-10 doctors |
15 |
| Pediatricians |
16 |
55-64 |
12 |
11-20 doctors |
26 |
| All others |
15 |
65+ |
8 |
21+ doctors |
39 |
Source: Medical Economics Magazine, Jan 21, 2005
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