The 2010 National Physician Survey (NPS) offers some hard data on adoption and use of electronic medical records by Canadian physicians. In response to a question regarding “Thinking about your MAIN patient care setting, which of these describes your record keeping system?”, respondents indicated that:
- 16.1% use electronic records
- 34.1% use combination of paper and electronic charts
- 37.6% use paper charts only
- 12.2% either did not respond or indicated that the question was not applicable to them
So, it would appear that slightly more than 50% of Canadian physicians use some form of electronic chart. Interestingly, of these physicians, roughly two thirds still use a mix of electronic and paper charts.
The NPS does not provide detailed data on use of EMRs in physician offices. The closest statistic in this regard is the answer to the question “In which setting do you use electronic records most often”, Respondents indicated:
- 43.1% in “Office/community clinic/community health centre”
- 38.8% in “Hospital/AHSC/Emergency Department”
- 1.5% in “University/faculty of medicine/research unit”
- 0.4% in “Nursing home/home for aged”
- 1.5% in “Other” settings
- 0.9% felt that the question was not applicable
- 13.8% did not respond
Mike
eHealth Musings 