title: Despite substantial progress In EHR adoption, health information exchange and patient engagement remain low in office settings.
abstract: The United States is making substantial investments to accelerate the adoption and use of interoperable electronic health record (EHR) systems. Using data from the 2009-13 Electronic Health Records Survey, we found that EHR adoption continues to grow: In 2013, 78 percent of office-based physicians had adopted some type of EHR, and 48 percent had the capabilities required for a basic EHR system. However, we also found persistent gaps in EHR adoption, with physicians in solo practices and non-primary care specialties lagging behind others. Physicians' electronic health information exchange with other providers was limited, with only 14 percent sharing data with providers outside their organization. Finally, we found that 30 percent of physicians routinely used capabilities for secure messaging with patients, and 24 percent routinely provided patients with the ability to view online, download, or transmit their health record. These findings suggest that although EHR adoption continues to grow, policies to support health information exchange and patient engagement will require ongoing attention.
authors.affiliation: Michael F. Furukawa (michael.furukawa@ahrq.hhs.gov) is a senior staff fellow in the Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in Rockville, Maryland. He was director of the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation, and Modeling at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in the Department of Health and Human Services when this article was written.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.affiliation: Jennifer King is chief of the Research and Evaluation Branch in the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation, and Modeling at the ONC.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Vaishali Patel is a senior adviser in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis at the ONC.
authors.forename: Vaishali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Chun-Ju Hsiao is a health scientist administrator in the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
authors.forename: Chun-Ju
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.affiliation: Julia Adler-Milstein is an assistant professor in the School of Information and the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adler-Milstein
authors.affiliation: Ashish K. Jha is a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Ashish K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D066275:Health Information Exchange; D006801:Humans; D062527:Meaningful Use; D010358:Patient Participation; D010824:Physicians' Offices; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: Ambulatory Care; Electronic Health Records; Health Information Technology