How many physicians are using Electronic Medical Records (EMR)?

Despite the focus on EMR, most physicians have not adopted the technology fully or even partially in their practices.

This information comes from Chris Thorman, who blogs about EMR systems at Software Advice. You can view the full article here: EHR Software Market Share Analysis. 

Of the approximately 788,000 physicians in the United States, 65 percent of them work in an outpatient facility or physician’s practice, according to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics. That’s 512,000 possible physicians who are in the outpatient EHR software market.

According to a recent study of office-based physicians released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 44 percent of those of 512,000 office-based doctors had adopted either a partial, basic, or fully functional EHR system. That’s 225,000 outpatient doctors using an EHR to some extent. 

Here’s how EHR adoption breaks down among the total number (512,000) of outpatient physicians in the United States:

• 56 percent - no EHR adoption;
• 21 percent - basic EHR adoption;
• 17 percent - partial EHR adoption; and,
• 6 percent -  full EHR adoption.