[ad_1]
Results
A total of 5618 surveys were mailed, and 615 were returned (11%). The majority of surveys were completed by physicians (N = 315, 51%), followed by APRNs (N = 122, 20%) and PAs (N = 97, 16%) (Table 1). The most common specialties were family medicine (N = 149, 24%) and internal medicine (N = 94, 15%). The majority of the reported practices had 175 beds or more (N = 200, 33%) and were urban, nonteaching (N = 186, 30.2%). HIE usage was reported by 100 participants (16%), and 19 (3%) intended to implement HIE within next year.
Among 615 respondents, 198 were current or previous users of the HIE (32%). These providers were asked to rate their influences to adopt HIE. Desire to improve patient care was indicated by the majority of practitioners as a major influence to adopt HIE (N = 111, 56%) (Table 2). The capabilities of receiving (N = 95, 48%) and sending information (N = 80, 40%) among a physician’s referral network were also indicated as major influences to adopt, along with the desire to meet meaningful use criteria (N = 89, 45%). Patients’ expectations, financial benefits to practice and HIE use among colleagues were not influences to adopt HIE for the majority of providers. Of the 100 providers who currently use NeHII, 50 (50%) reported enhanced patient care as a result of using the HIE and 63 providers (63%) were somewhat or very satisfied with the current system.
Regardless of their previous HIE usage or implementation plans, all providers were asked to rank barriers to using NeHII. The cost of use and lost productivity during implementation were cited as major barriers by 38% and 36% of respondents, respectively (Table 3). Minor barriers included resistance of employees to change in work habits (N = 244, 40%), adequacy of HIE training (N = 235, 38%), concern with sharing patient information in the network (N = 231, 38%), system reliability (N = 222, 33%) and technical support (N = 204, 33%). In addition, access to high- speed Internet was a barrier for 184 providers (30%) and reaching a consensus to use an HIE was a barrier for 290 providers (47%).
All providers were asked to assess the desired HIE features regardless of their HIE implementation status. Providers ranked a variety of HIE features by their importance from ‘very important’ to ‘not important’ (Table 4). Features ranked as ‘very important’ were accessing comprehensive medications (N = 422, 69%), patient allergies (N = 396, 64%), viewing lab results (N = 381, 62%), clinical notes (N = 378, 62%), patient problem lists (N = 358, 58%) and radiology images (N = 325, 53%). Exchanging clinical summaries (N = 343, 56%) was also reported as ‘very important’. Features ranked ‘somewhat important’ by the majority of participants included public health reporting (N = 257, 42%), additional free access for staff (N = 217, 35%) and electronic insurance information (N = 205, 33%).
HIE was believed to have significant impact on practice regardless of previous experience and usage (Table 5). HIE was reported to ‘very likely’ help identify critical lab values (N = 264, 43%), duplicate prescriptions (N = 263, 43%), medication errors (N = 221, 36%) and needed lab tests (N = 211, 34%). In addition, providers identified that HIE would ‘very likely’ help order fewer tests (N = 256, 41.6%), monitor prescription drugs (N = 240, 39%) and enhance patient care (N = 243, 39.5%). Most responders indicated that HIE was ‘somewhat likely’ to help order more on-formulary drugs (N = 194, 32%) and provide preventative care (N = 180, 29%). The ability of NeHII to enhance patient care was reported as ‘very likely’ by 243 providers (40%) and ‘somewhat likely’ by 160 providers (26%).
[ad_2]
Source link
