A government survey indicates there was an 18.7% increase in the use of electronic health record software in physician offices to 41.5% in 2008 from 34% in 2007, but preliminary results for 2009 show only a slight increase up to 43.9%.
Doctors were asked, “Does this practice use electronic medical records or electronic health records (not including billing records)?” with options for answering “all electronic,” “part paper and part electronic,” “no” or “don't know.”
A “basic” system was defined as including patient demographic information, “patient problem lists,” clinical notes, orders for prescriptions and applications for viewing laboratory and imaging results.
A “fully functional' system, also included functions for medical histories and follow-ups, test ordering, electronic prescribing, drug interaction alerts, flagging “out of range” test levels, and reminders for guideline-based interventions.
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