Infographics :Whether California has become the EHR Failure State?

California – HIT Nuptials

Significant amount of Californians are tech-savvy and thus they would like to exploit the Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) for their healthcare requirements. About 60 percent of them prefer online ingression for performing the following tasks:

• Access to view, download and transfer their healthcare information
• Online appointment scheduling
• Healthcare payment portfolio management
• Email appointment reminders
• Renewal of healthcare insurance
• Making payments for their healthcare needs
• Payer communications
• Email their health care providers and pertinent professionals.

The Horse of a Different Color

In a recent report of California Healthcare Foundation about “Health Information Technology in California”, it was underscored that in contrary to the noteworthy development in the tools utility, the state hangs back the Country due to the hindrance encountered by the physicians, clinics, hospitals and other healthcare centers in many technical areas especially:

E-prescribing (CPOE-Computerized Physician Order Form)

EHR/EMR (Electronic Health/Medical Records)

Snapshots of the Survey

• EHR Utility: About 77 percent of the Californian adults deem an electronic health record (EHR) as a highly beneficial tracking tool, more than 85 percent patients say that the physicians must have patient’s protected health information (PHI) access and 49 percent of the consumers loathe their EHR usage by third parties.
• EHR Consumers: Among the patients with EHR access, 57 percent of them utilized the system to:

1. Peruse lab/ imaging tests and reports (32 percent)
2. Schedule appointment (38 percent)
3. Email their healthcare provider (36 percent)
4. Request a prescription renewal (28 percent)
5. Take a glance at the medical records (25 percent)

• Non-EHR Users: Among the group of non-EHR users, it was observed that they are interested in interacting with physicians through EHR access to:

1. Look medical records through patient portals (60 percent)
2. Online appointment scheduling (57 percent)
3. Set appointment reminders through email (54 percent), phone call (51 percent), text (35 percent) and postal mail (19 percent).
4. Secured online communication (50 percent)

• Usage by CHC: There was a colossal change in the community health centers’ (CHC) EHR usage from 3 percent in 2005 to about 65 percent in 2011.
• Usage by Doctors: There was a hefty change in the usage level of EHRs by the doctors from 37 percent in 2008 to above 60 percent in 2013.
• The Ranking: On a national scale, California has been holding 49^th rank on e-prescribing espousal and utilization.
• Health Info: The EHR consumers of California use diverse internet sources to access the health information:

1. Medical website (WebMD, Medscape) – 40 percent
2. Search engine (Google, Yahoo or Bing) – 33 percent
3. Health plan websites – 20 percent
4. Hospital website – 17 percent
5. YouTube – 11 percent
6. Facebook – 9 percent
7. Physician website – 7 percent
8. Pharmaceutical Company website – 7 percent
9. Twitter – 3 percent.

• Incentive Program: About 37 percent of California physicians surveyed in 2011 planned to partake in the Medi-Cal or Medicare EHR incentive programs. Whereas 39 percent of the doctors don’t have the plan to participate and 25 percent are ineligible.
• Practice Size: Based on 2012 report:

Solo practitioners in California demonstrated the lowest rate (41 percent) of EHR access.

1. 2-9 MDs group – 57 percent
2. 10 – 49 MDs – 75 percent
3. 50 plus MDs – 86 percent

• Practice Location: Physicians in urban areas of California used EHRs much (73 percent) when compared with those in rural areas (58 percent).
• Physician Type: Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) more predominantly used EHRs (62 percent) than the specialists (58 percent).
• Implementation Status: About half (49 percent) of California hospitals had an EHR system in 2012 whilst 32 percent had partially electronic system and about 19 percent had the paper-based system.
• Meaningful Use: About 83 percent of the hospitals meet the core objectives of the meaningful EHR usage.

The Final Caveat

This report throws light on the fact that Californians are lagging behind the Country and they must exploit the HIT advantage by adopting the EHR technology.

Take heed ! Already it’s too late…