title: EHR adoption among doctors who treat the elderly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to examine Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption among Florida doctors who treat the elderly. This analysis contributes to the EHR adoption literature by determining if doctors who disproportionately treat the elderly differ from their counterparts with respect to the utilization of an important quality-enhancing health information technology application.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is based on a primary survey of a large, statewide sample of doctors practising in outpatient settings in Florida. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether doctors who treat a high volume of elderly (HVE) patients were different with respect to EHR adoption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our analyses included responses from 1724 doctors. In multivariate analyses controlling for doctor age, training, computer sophistication, practice size and practice setting, HVE doctors were significantly less likely to adopt EHR. Specifically, compared with their counterparts, HVE doctors were observed to be 26.7% less likely to be utilizing an EHR system (OR=0.733, 95% CI 0.547-0.982). We also found that doctor age is negatively related to EHR adoption, and practice size and doctor computer savvy-ness is positively associated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the fact that EHR adoption has improved in recent years, doctors in Florida who serve the elderly are less likely to adopt EHRs. As long as HVE doctors are adopting EHR systems at slower rates, the elderly patients treated by these doctors will be at a disadvantage with respect to potential benefits offered by this technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health, Birmingham, AL, USA. vyeager@uab.edu
authors.forename: Valerie A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Yeager
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Menachemi
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Brooks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires