Saturday, November 16, 2013

Psychiatrists have lowest EHR adoption rate of all specialties


Yikes! I've been silent here for close to a year. This is what happens when you get used to the appeal of short-form blogging (twitter). But you can only say so much in 140 characters.

Anyway, I tweeted yesterday about the low rate of electronic health record (EHR) adoption among psychiatrists (7%) and @ShellyVAdams asked for a link; so here is a bit more detail. Jonathan Wolfe has a piece in Psych News coming out next week with more details.

The HITECH Act's funding for EHR adoption for eligible providers does not cover most mental health professionals (eg, social workers, psychologists, counselors, community mental health centers (CMHCs), etc), other than psychiatrists and some nurse practitioners. Because many psychiatrists practice in CMHCs, it is not surprising that the rate is lower.

Click on the image below to go to the original source (page 38):

FYI: The average for solo practice physicians in 2012 is about 30%.