Few surveyed small and midsize physician practices use electronic health record system functions that are seen as essential components of the patient-centered medical home model of care, according to a Health Affairs study, InformationWeek reports.
For the study, researchers surveyed 1,344 small and medium-sized physician practices with one to 19 doctors.
Key Results
Survey respondents indicated that they use only about 20% of the care processes that are considered required for medical homes, which include:
The survey found that smaller practices had implemented fewer health IT-related processes than larger groups. For example:
In addition, the majority of physicians communicated online with patients in less than 9% of the practices.
Steven Shortell — a co-author of the study, and dean of the School of Public Health and professor of health policy and management at the University of California-Berkeley — said that small practices may have fewer resources than larger groups, so it could take them longer to use the full range of EHR functions.
He added that a lack of online communication can reflect “the nature of the patient population” and whether they have Internet access and want to communicate online with physicians (Terry, InformationWeek, 7/8).
Source: iHealthBeat
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