More physicians using electronic records

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BALTIMORE, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Slightly more than half of U.S. physicians report using electronic medical records in their practices, up a bit from 2009, researchers say.

Chun-Ju Hsiao, Esther Hing, Thomas C. Socey and Bill Cai of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services say the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey -- conducted this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics -- indicates 50.7 percent of U.S. physicians reported using all or partial electronic medical records, for patient files not billing, in their practices. That's up from 48.3 percent in 2009.

In 2010, about 24.9 percent reported having systems that met the criteria of a basic system and 10.1 percent reported having systems that met the criteria of a fully functional system, up from 2009's 21.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

The percentage of physicians having systems that met the criteria of a basic system by state ranged from 12.5 percent to 51.5 percent, the report said. Excluding 27 states with unreliable estimates, the percentage of physicians having systems that met the criteria of a fully functional system ranged from 9.7 percent to 27.2 percent.

From April through July, the researchers surveyed a sample of 10,301 U.S. physicians with the mail survey and followed up with telephone calls to non-respondents.