Family Doctors Will Keep Electronic Medical Records

Family Doctors Will Keep Electronic Medical Records.
More than two-thirds of classification doctors now use electronic salubriousness records, and the percentage doing so doubled between 2005 and 2011, a original study finds. If the trend continues, 80 percent of family doctors - the largest assemblage of primary care physicians - will be using electronic records by 2013, the researchers predicted. The findings require "some encouragement that we have passed a critical threshold," said review author Dr Andrew Bazemore, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care, in Washington, DC "The significant seniority of primary care practitioners appear to be using digital medical records in some bod or fashion".

The promises of electronic record-keeping include improved medical regard and long-term savings. However, many doctors were slow to adopt these records because of the squiffy cost and the complexity of converting paper files. There were also privacy concerns. "We are not there yet. More accomplish is needed, including better information from all of the states".

The Obama administration has offered incentives to doctors who accept electronic health records, and penalties to those who do not. For the study, researchers mined two nationalist data sets to see how many family doctors were using electronic vigour records, how this number changed over time, and how it compared to use by specialists. Their findings appear in the January-February broadcasting of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Nationally, 68 percent of family doctors were using electronic health records in 2011, they found. Rates heterogeneous by state, with a low of about 47 percent in North Dakota and a consequential of nearly 95 percent in Utah. Dr Michael Oppenheim, vice president and ringleader medical information officer for North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY, said electronic record-keeping streamlines medical care.