Docs Say e-Health Records Aren’t Financially Worth It

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.

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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.

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Despite that view, the majority of physicians report that electronic health records improve access to clinical data (78%) and bill collection (63%). 

Access the full survey.  

Written by Alyssa Gerace