Dive Brief:
- A new survey by SK&A has concluded EMR adoption rates among sole practitioner physicians have increased significantly from last to this year.
- To do the study, SK&A researchers surveyed 270,036 medical sites over the phone about their EMR adoption.
- Overall, the survey found that EMR adoption among this group grew from 50.3% in 2013 to 61% this year. EMR adoption rates among single physician offices grew 11.4%, 1.6% among offices with at least 26 physicians, and 8% among integrated delivery systems.
Dive Insight:
While the researchers attribute the spike in solo practitioner EMR adoption to the variety of products available that meet their needs, size and budget, I think it runs deeper than that. I believe the near saturation of EMRs in many of the environments in which they practice has made them more comfortable with the idea of running their own EMR ship. Not only that, as larger providers continue to adopt EMRs—and want to exchange data electronically—solo practice doctors are under peer pressure to join the crowd. Eventually, that alone should be enough to push solo docs into EMR ownership.