Survey: 80% Of Physicians Use EHRs, Many Favor VA's System

A majority of health care providers reported using an electronic health record system, with the Department of Veterans Affairs' VA-CPRS system scoring the highest, according to a new Medscape survey, EHR Intelligence reports (Bresnick, EHR Intelligence, 7/17). More than 18,500 physicians across 25 specialties responded to the survey, including physicians who:

• Practice independently and use their own EHR systems;
• Practice independently and use a hospital EHR; and
• Are part of a hospital or health system network and use that organization's EHR.

For the survey, physicians rated their EHRs by several criteria, including:

• Ease of use;
• Clinical workflow functionalities;
• Interoperability;
• Overall satisfaction with the product; and
• Vendor support

Those ratings were then used to rank EHRs on a scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 5 meaning "excellent" and 1 meaning "poor" (Chesanow, Medscape Medical News, 7/15)...