Office-based physicians are adopting EMRs

Like the increased use of electronic medical records throughout the health-care industry, office-based primary-care physicians are implementing the systems in their practices, too. Indeed, a Medical Economics (1/21/05) survey of nearly 2,000 family and general practitioners, internists, ob/gyns, and pediatricians found that 15% use EMRs. Among ob/gyns alone, 12% say they use EMRs.

The survey found that most EMR users are young (47% are under the age of 44), in a large practice (65% are in practices with 11 or more physicians), and a generalist (42% are family or general practitioners or internists). In addition, 23% of all respondents-and 19% of ob/gyns alone-plan to purchase an EMR system in the next 12 months.

Of the ob/gyns who said they already use EMR systems, 66% said they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with them. Nearly half of ob/gyns with EMR systems said that the system's templates were "very close" or "close" to their own practice styles, while 52% said customizing templates required "a lot of work." Still, about two thirds of ob/gyns (65%) said they expect a return on their investment.