Growth in EHR usage depends to some degree on the brand of platform used, and on whether a hospital has participated in quality programs from The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. (Image: Shutterstock)
The use of electronic health records (EHRs) by hospitals in the U.S. has grown considerably in recent years, but though many hospitals provide patients access to their EHR data, smaller hospitals are lagging behind in their ability to share data with patients. In addition, patients are not accessing the data in large numbers.
The findings come from two studies released in April by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The studies looked at separate-but-related issues: the use of EHRs by hospitals, and the capabilities of patients to access EHR data from hospitals.
Nearly all hospitals use EHRs, allow patients' access
The ONC said that as of 2017, 94 percent of hospitals in the U.S. have EHRs that are used in clinical practice. Between 2015 and 2016, there was a seven percent increase in hospitals using EHR data in clinical practice. Between 2016 and 2017, the number remained roughly the same.
“Since 2015, the majority of hospitals have used electronic clinical data from their EHR for internal hospital processes that inform clinical practice,” the report said in its summary. “The most common uses of EHR data in 2017 were supporting a continuous quality improvement process (82 percent), monitoring patient safety (81 percent of hospitals), and creating a dashboard with measures of organizational performance (77 percent). EHR data is least commonly used to develop an approach to query for patient data (51 percent), assess adherence to clinical practice guidelines (59 percent), and identify care gaps for specific patient populations (60 percent).”
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