Number of physicians that feel EHRs improves patient care is down since 2011

The number of physicians that feel that electronic health records can improve patient care is 69% in 2012, down from 75% in 2011, according to the third annual Physician Sentinel Index, a survey by the online physician community Sermo and EHR provider Athenahealth.

The survey was administered to 500 physicians across a range of practice sizes and specialties.  Key findings include:

• 75% of respondents feel that achieving meaningful use is a burden.
• 53% of respondents believe the Affordable Care Act will be detrimental to patient care; 58% believe that it should be repealed, and 26% believe that some elements should be repealed. Only 16% said to keep it as is.
• 53% of physicians believe an EHR's financial benefits outweighs its costs, a drop of nearly 17% since 2011.
• 72% of physicians agree that patient contact suffers with an EHR, a 20% increase over 2011.
• Although 71% of all 2012 respondents report a somewhat favorable or very favorable opinion of EHRs, the number of very favorable responses is down almost 18% since the 2011 survey.

(Sources: The Advisory Board Daily Briefing, http://advisory.com, June 19, 2012; Physician Sentinel Index Survey, http://www.athenahealth.com/PSI/ehr-adoption.php, June 2012)