Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2014 Aug 27;5(3):789-801.
doi: 10.4338/ACI-2014-05-RA-0050. eCollection 2014.

Physician beliefs about the impact of meaningful use of the EHR: a cross-sectional study

S Emani  1 , D Y Ting  2 , M Healey  3 , S R Lipsitz  1 , A S Karson  4 , J S Einbinder  1 , L Leinen  5 , V Suric  1 , D W Bates  6
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Physician beliefs about the impact of meaningful use of the EHR: a cross-sectional study

S Emani et al. Appl Clin Inform. .

Abstract

Background: As adoption and use of electronic health records (EHRs) grows in the United States, there is a growing need in the field of applied clinical informatics to evaluate physician perceptions and beliefs about the impact of EHRs. The meaningful use of EHR incentive program provides a suitable context to examine physician beliefs about the impact of EHRs.

Objective: Contribute to the sparse literature on physician beliefs about the impact of EHRs in areas such as quality of care, effectiveness of care, and delivery of care.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of physicians at two academic medical centers (AMCs) in the northeast who were preparing to qualify for the meaningful use of EHR incentive program.

Results: Of the 1,797 physicians at both AMCs who were preparing to qualify for the incentive program, 967 completed the survey for an overall response rate of 54%. Only 23% and 27% of physicians agreed or strongly agreed that meaningful use of the EHR will help them improve the care they personally deliver and improve quality of care respectively. Physician specialty was significantly associated with beliefs; e.g., 35% of primary care physicians agreed or strongly agreed that meaningful use will improve quality of care compared to 26% of medical specialists and 21% of surgical specialists (p=0.009). Satisfaction with outpatient EHR was also significantly related to all belief items.

Conclusions: Only about a quarter of physicians in our study responded positively that meaningful use of the EHR will improve quality of care and the care they personally provide. These findings are similar to and extend findings from qualitative studies about negative perceptions that physicians hold about the impact of EHRs. Factors outside of the regulatory context, such as physician beliefs, need to be considered in the implementation of the meaningful use of the EHR incentive program.

Keywords: Electronic health records; beliefs; evaluation; meaningful use; physicians.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest in the research.

References

    1. Kim GR, Lehmann CU.In search of dialogue and discourse in applied clinical informatics. Appl Clin Inform 2009; 0: 1–7 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blumenthal D, Tavenner M.The „meaningful use“ regulation for electronic health records. N Engl J Med 2010; 363(6): 501–504 - PubMed
    1. Buntin MB, Jain SH, Blumenthal D.Health information technology: laying the infrastructure for national health reform. Health Aff (Millwood) 2010; 29(6): 1214–1219 - PubMed
    1. Linder JA, Ma J, Bates DW, Middleton B, Stafford RS.Electronic health record use and the quality of ambulatory care in the United States. Arch Intern Med 2007; 167(13): 1400–1405 - PubMed
    1. Grabenbauer L, Fraser R, McClay J, Woelfl N, Thompson CB, Cambell J, Windle J. Adoption of EHR – a qualitative study of academic and private physicians and health administrators. Appl Clin Inform 2011; 2: 165–176 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types