Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

■ ■ ONC Data Brief No. 23 April 2015

Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among U.S. Non-

Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Dustin Charles, MPH; Meghan Gabriel, PhD; Talisha Searcy, MPA, MA

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009

directed the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to

promote the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). In addition, the

adoption and increased use of health IT products is a keystone objective of the Federal Health IT

Strategic Plan (1). This brief describes trends in adoption of EHR systems among non-federal

acute care hospitals from 2008 to 2014. It tracks both the adoption of Basic EHR systems and the

possession of EHR technology certified to meet federal requirements. Basic EHR adoption

represents a minimum use of core functionality determined to be essential to an EHR system (see

Table A1). This brief refers to Basic EHR adoption with clinical notes unless otherwise stated. A

certified EHR is EHR technology that meets the technological capability, functionality, and

security requirements adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Three out of Four Hospitals have a Basic EHR System.

Figure 1: Percent of non-Federal acute care hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR with notes system and

possession of a certified EHR: 2008-2014

NOTES: Basic EHR adoption requires the EHR system to have a set of EHR functions defined in Table A1. A certified EHR is EHR technology that

meets the technological capability, functionality, and security requirements adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services. Possession

means that the hospital has a legal agreement with the EHR vendor, but is not equivalent to adoption.

*Significantly different from previous year (p < 0.05).

SOURCE: ONC/American Hospital Association (AHA), AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement

 In 2014, 3 out of 4 (76%) hospitals had adopted at least a Basic EHR system. This

represents an increase of 27% from 2013 and an eight-fold increase since 2008.

 Nearly all reported hospitals (97%) possessed a certified EHR technology in 2014,

increasing by 35% since 2011.

For all states, at least half of hospitals adopted a Basic EHR.

Table 1: Percent of non-federal acute care hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR system by U.S. State,

2014.

State

Basic EHR, %

n (N)

State

Basic EHR, %

n (N)

United States

75.5

2682 (4451)

Missouri

68.5§

111(111)

Alabama

72.5

35(89)

Montana

70.6

27(54)

Alaska

76.1

7(21)

Nebraska

66.9

48(84)

Arizona

88.6†

31(62)

Nevada

63.6

13(30)

Arkansas

91.1†

35(71)

New Hampshire

71.7

17(26)

California

71.6

170(325)

New Jersey

70.0

44(64)

Colorado

81.7†

50(71)

New Mexico

73.4

18(32)

Connecticut

81.2

22(29)

New York

72.5

110(170)

Delaware

100.0†

5(6)

North Carolina

78.4

60(106)

District of Columbia

67.5

6(8)

North Dakota

81.7

14(41)

Florida

87.0†

119(182)

Ohio

67.5§

100(154)

Georgia

82.3†

66(130)

Oklahoma

68.7

47(105)

Hawaii

54.8§

12(22)

Oregon

81.4

36(59)

Idaho

69.5

19(38)

Pennsylvania

72.4

107(154)

Illinois

85.0†

126(177)

Rhode Island

82.6

6(10)

Indiana

83.1†

61(107)

South Carolina

68.1†

26(58)

Iowa

74.9

85(117)

South Dakota

95.1

22(51)

Kansas

60.0§

92(125)

Tennessee

77.9

52(114)

Kentucky

65.1§

60(96)

Texas

71.7§

231(342)

Louisiana

75.3

42(98)

Utah

77.5

21(44)

Maine

79.1

19(34)

Vermont

83.1

5(14)

Maryland

90.7†

33(45)

Virginia

93.2†

51(80)

Massachusetts

76.9

36(62)

Washington

77.4

32(89)

Michigan

71.7

83(128)

West Virginia

49.6§

24(49)

Minnesota

84.7†

124(128)

Wisconsin

77.4

82(125)

Mississippi

75.6

25(90)

Wyoming

67.9

15(24)

NOTES: Basic EHR adoption requires the EHR system to have a set of EHR functions defined in Table A1.

n = survey respondents; N = hospitals surveyed. All estimates met standards for reliability.

†Significantly higher than national average

§Significantly lower than national average (p < 0.05)

SOURCE: ONC/AHA, AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement

 State rates of hospital adoption of at least a Basic EHR system ranged from 50% to

100%.

 Delaware (100%), South Dakota (95%), and Virginia (93%) had the highest percent of

hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR system.

 West Virginia (50%), Hawaii (55%), and Kansas (60%) had the lowest percent of

hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR system.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

State adoption rates have increased from 2008 to 2014.

Figure 2: State percent of non-federal acute care hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR system compared

with prior years.

NOTES: Basic EHR adoption requires the EHR system to have at least a basic set of EHR functions, including clinician notes, as defined in Table A1.

Estimates for states shaded gray did not meet the standards for reliability (NR). See the Table A2 for a complete list of 2008 and 2011 hospital

adoption by state.

SOURCE: ONC/AHA, AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement

 In 2008, hospital adoption of at least a Basic EHR system was above 20% in only 2

states (Connecticut and New Mexico).

 Three years later, hospital adoption of at least a Basic EHR system was above 20% in 32

states and above 40% in 7 states.

 In 2014, hospital adoption of at least a Basic EHR system was above 60% in all but 2

states (Hawaii and West Virginia), and above 80% in 17 states.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Trends in EHR adoption show increasing use of advanced functionality.

Figure 3: Percent of non-federal acute care hospitals with adoption of EHR systems by level of functionality: 2008-

2014.

NOTES: Definitions of Basic EHR and Comprehensive EHR systems are reported in Table A1.

*Significantly different from previous year (p < 0.05).

SOURCE: ONC/AHA, AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement.

 Fewer hospitals are using Basic EHRs without Clinician Notes, while the systems with

more advanced functionality have increased significantly.

 Hospital adoption of Comprehensive EHR systems has increased eleven-fold since 2009,

rising to a third (34.4%) of hospitals in 2014.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S

. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Summary

Adoption of EHR systems by non-federal acute care hospitals has steadily increased since

HITECH. Basic EHR adoption represents a minimum use of core functionality determined to be

essential to an EHR system (2). In 2014, 3 in 4 (76%) non-federal acute care hospitals had

adopted at least a Basic EHR system with clinician notes. This represents a 27% increase from

the previous year and a more than eight-fold increase in EHR adoption since 2008. At 16

percentage points higher than 2013, this is the second highest increase in adoption since 2012 (17

percentage points).

Moreover, since the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009, state EHR adoption rates have

increased. EHR adoption rates increased from only 2 states reporting rates higher than 20% to all

states reporting rates 50% or higher by 2014. Furthermore, only 2 states currently have adoption

rates below 60%.

In addition to growth in EHR adoption overall, hospital adoption of technology with advanced

functionality increased significantly. While fewer hospitals used Basic EHR systems without

clinician notes, significantly more adopted systems with clinician notes. Additionally, over a

third of hospitals were using more advanced EHR functionality. Hospital adoption of

Comprehensive EHR systems has increased more than eleven-fold in the last five years.

Finally, a vast majority of acute care hospitals (97%) possessed EHR technology certified to

meet federal requirements. These hospitals should have the technology needed to meet EHR

Incentive Program objectives. These systems are also certified to be secure and able to work with

other certified systems to share information. Thus, the increase in the rate of adoption for

certified EHR technology shed a positive light on hospitals’ progress towards the interoperable

exchange of health information.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Definitions

Non-federal acute care hospital: Includes acute care general medical and surgical, general

children’s, and cancer hospitals owned by private/not-for-profit, investor-owned/for-profit, or

state/local government and located within the 50 states and District of Columbia. The inclusion

of children’s general and cancer hospitals makes this definition different from previous peer-

reviewed research (3). However, it is more consistent with the population of hospitals eligible for

federal health IT adoption incentives.

Adoption of Basic EHR: Table A1 defines the electronic functions required for hospital adoption

of a Basic or Comprehensive EHR system, which a consensus expert panel established (2). Basic

EHR adoption requires that each function be implemented in at least one unit in the hospital.

However, Comprehensive EHR adoption requires that each function be implemented in all units.

Because the panel disagreed on the need to include physician notes and nursing assessments to

classify a Basic system, so they developed two definitions of Basic EHR adoption (Basic EHR

without Notes and Basic EHR with Notes) (2). Since the first stage of the CMS EHR Incentive

Program did not require clinician notes, an earlier brief reported Basic EHR without Clinician

Notes (4). However, clinician notes are now a requirement for the second stage (5), the definition

of Basic EHR in this brief includes clinician notes as a requirement for at least a Basic EHR

system.

Possession of Certified EHR: A certified EHR is EHR technology that meets the technological

capability, functionality, and security requirements adopted by the Department of Health and

Human Services. This includes the capability to securely work with other certified EHR systems

to share information (interoperability). “Possession” of certified EHR technology is considered

to be either the physical possession of the medium on which a certified EHR system resides or a

legally enforceable right by a health care provider to access and use, at its discretion, the

capabilities of a certified EHR system.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Data Source and Methods

Data are from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT)

Supplement to the AHA Annual Survey. Since 2008, ONC has partnered with the AHA to

measure the adoption and use of health IT in U.S. hospitals. ONC funded the 2014 AHA IT

Supplement to track hospital adoption and use of EHRs and the exchange of clinical data.

The chief executive officer of each U.S. hospital was invited to participate in the survey

regardless of AHA membership status. The person most knowledgeable about the hospital’s

health IT (typically the chief information officer) was requested to provide the information via a

mail survey or secure online site. Non-respondents received follow-up mailings and phone calls

to encourage response. The survey was fielded from November 2014 to the end of February

2015.

This analysis consisted of non-federal, acute care hospitals, including children’s and cancer

hospitals. Differences in the estimates in this brief from a prior study reporting Basic EHR

adoption with clinician notes (6) are due to the inclusion of children’s and cancer hospitals and

small differences in the calculation of hospital-level weights.

The response rate for non-federal acute care hospitals was 60%. A logistic regression model was

used to predict the propensity of survey response as a function of hospital characteristics,

including size, ownership, teaching status, system membership, availability of a cardiac intensive

care unit, urban status, and region. Hospital-level weights were derived by the inverse of the

predicted propensity.

Estimates considered unreliable had a relative standard error adjusted for finite populations

greater than 0.49. Responses with missing values were assigned zero values. Significant

differences were tested using p < 0.05 as the threshold.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

References

1. “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020,” Office of the National Coordinator for

Health Information Technology, 2014, page 2. Available at

http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/federal-healthIT-strategic-plan-2014.pdf.

2. Blumenthal D, DesRoches CM, Donelan K, Ferris TG, Jha AK, Kaushal R, et al. Health

Information Technology in the United States: The Information Base for Progress.

Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; 2006.

3. DesRoches CM, Worzala C, Joshi MS, Kralovec PD, Jha AK. “Small, Nonteaching, and

Rural Hospitals Continue to be Slow in Adopting Electronic Health Record Systems.”

Health Affairs. 31(5): 1092-1099; 2012.

4. Charles D, Furukawa MF, Hufstader M. “Electronic Health Record Systems and Intent to

Attest to Meaningful Use among Non-federal Acute Care Hospitals in the United States:

2008-2011” ONC Data Brief, no 1. Washington, DC: Office of the National Coordinator

for Health Information Technology. February 2012.

5. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. [Medicare and Medicaid] EHR Incentive

Programs. Available form: https://www.cms.gov/ehrincentiveprograms.

6. Jha AK, DesRoches CM, Campbell EG, Donelan K, Rao SR, Ferris TG, Shields A,

Rosenbaum S, Blumenthal D. Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals. New

England Journal of Medicine. 360(16): 1628-38; 2009.

About the Authors

The authors are with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology,

Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis.

Suggested Citation

Charles, D., Gabriel, M., Searcy T. (April 2015) Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems

among U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014. ONC Data Brief, no.23. Office of

the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology: Washington DC.

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Appendix

Table A1: Electronic Functions Required for Hospital Adoption of Basic or Comprehensive EHR Systems

EHR Functions

Required

Basic EHR without

Clinician Notes

Basic EHR with

Clinician Notes

Comprehensive

EHR

Electronic Clinical

Information

Patient demographics

  

Physician notes

 

Nursing assessments

 

Problem lists

  

Medication lists

  

Discharge summaries

  

Advance directives



Computerized Provider

Order Entry

Lab reports



Radiology tests



Medications

  

Consultation requests



Nursing orders



Results Management

View lab reports

  

View radiology reports

  

View radiology images



View diagnostic test results

  

View diagnostic test images



View consultant report



Decision Support

Clinical guidelines



Clinical reminders



Drug allergy results



Drug-drug interactions



Drug-lab interactions



Drug dosing support



NOTES: Basic EHR adoption requires each function to be implemented in at least one clinical unit, and Comprehensive EHR adoption requires each

function to be implemented in all clinical units

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014

Table A2: Percent of non-federal acute care hospitals with adoption of at least a Basic EHR system by U.S. State,

2008 & 2011.

State 2008 Basic EHR, % n (N) State 2011 Basic EHR, % n (N)

United States

Alabama 9% 34(99) Alabama 22% 44(95)

Alaska 0% 7(21) Alaska NR 13(22)

Arizona 14% 31(60) Arizona 17% 31(62)

Arkansas 9% 53(75) Arkansas 32% 40(72)

California 9% 179(343) California 22% 153(333)

Colorado 11% 41(70) Colorado 30% 42(72)

Connecticut 22% 24(31) Connecticut 22% 22(30)

Delaware 0% 4(6) Delaware 39% 5(6)

District of Columbia NR 5(9) District of Columbia 37% 8(9)

Florida 11% 96(186) Florida 51% 93(183)

Georgia 5% 78(140) Georgia 15% 53(139)

Hawaii NR 11(22) Hawaii NR 9(23)

Idaho NR 24(39) Idaho 19% 24(39)

Illinois 9% 130(185) Illinois 35% 131(180)

Indiana 11% 70(106) Indiana 19% 66(107)

Iowa 2% 79(117) Iowa 35% 83(117)

Kansas 0% 76(122) Kansas 19% 102(123)

Kentucky 6% 67(97) Kentucky 24% 58(98)

Louisiana 8% 58(108) Louisiana 14% 48(101)

Maine 3% 29(36) Maine 20% 24(36)

Maryland 16% 37(46) Maryland 28% 39(46)

Massachusetts 9%

35(71)

Massachusetts

37%

39(67)

Michigan 14% 103(133) Michigan 31% 87(133)

Minnesota 17% 80(128) Minnesota 44% 127(131)

Mississippi 8% 39(90) Mississippi 17% 37(88)

Missouri 9% 69(113) Missouri 35% 113(113)

Montana 6% 33(54) Montana 15% 31(54)

Nebraska 6% 50(83) Nebraska 19% 52(84)

Nevada 0% 11(29) Nevada 36% 13(30)

New Hampshire 4% 23(26) New Hampshire 29% 14(26)

New Jersey 16% 40(66) New Jersey 11% 41(63)

New Mexico 22% 16(31) New Mexico 23% 16(29)

New York 11% 120(190) New York 26% 118(177)

North Carolina 11% 79(109) North Carolina 24% 76(111)

North Dakota NR 20(42) North Dakota NR 15(42)

Ohio 4% 115(157) Ohio 20% 96(158)

Oklahoma 15% 56(103) Oklahoma 14% 39(102)

Oregon 17% 30(57) Oregon 42% 25(58)

Pennsylvania 8% 111(163) Pennsylvania 30% 109(158)

Rhode Island NR 6(11) Rhode Island 55% 9(11)

South Carolina 7% 39(59) South Carolina 27% 24(57)

South Dakota 11% 47(51) South Dakota 17% 27(51)

Tennessee 6% 61(114) Tennessee 21% 49(116)

Texas 9% 215(346) Texas 20% 175(349)

Utah NR 20(41) Utah NR 8(41)

Vermont 15% 13(14) Vermont 45% 7(14)

Virginia 15% 52(80) Virginia 53% 40(79)

Washington 7% 46(85) Washington 38% 51(85)

West Virginia 7% 38(50) West Virginia 23% 27(50)

Wisconsin 10% 85(122) Wisconsin 47% 73(121)

Wyoming 10% 20(24) Wyoming 21% 15(24)

NOTES: Basic EHR adoption requires the EHR system to have a set of EHR functions defined in Table A1.

n = survey respondents; N = hospitals surveyed. NR = estimate does not meet standards for reliability.

SOURCE: ONC/AHA, AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement

ONC Data Brief No. 23 | Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among

U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008-2014