Dive Brief:
- A new study from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT concludes that a majority of in-office doctors can view lab results and send e-prescriptions.
- The study, which was conducted by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, found that 87 percent of physicians with EMRs could view lab results online, as compared with 67 percent of all doctors.
- Seventy-eight percent of physicians with EMRs could send prescriptions electronically, as compared with 55 percent of all physicians.
Dive Insight:
While this study offers encouraging news, it also highlights areas in which physicians are lagging. Researchers found that even among EMR users, just 49 percent of doctors could exchange clinical summaries with other providers, and that only 54 percent could send an electronic order to a lab. Bottom line: While doctors have clearly made a lot of made a lot of progress, but they still have a ways to travel before they're leveraging their EMR investment to the hilt.