A majority of physicians don’t think electronic health records are worth the cost of implementation from a financial perspective, but they do still think they present an advantage in terms of patient care, according to a new survey.
More than half (51%) of physicians said in 2013 that the financial benefits of an electronic medical record/electronic health record system do not outweigh the costs of implementing it, according to the 2013 Physician Sentiment Index released by athenahealth.
That represents a slight shift from 2012, when less than half (47%) said the same.
The systems are expensive to purchase, install, and maintain, more than 80% of physicians agreed across the last two surveys. Another 44% said in this year’s survey that EMR/EHR systems don’t achieve measurable positive financial impact.
However, the majority of doctors still believe in 2013 that the patient care benefits of EMR/EHR do outweigh the costs, at 55%, down from last year’s 60%.
From 2012 to 2013, opinions among physician respondents remained fairly consistent that EMRs/EHRs weren’t designed with doctors in mind, at 47% this year.
Despite that view, the majority of physicians report that electronic health records improve access to clinical data (78%) and bill collection (63%).
Written by Alyssa Gerace