Proliferation of electronic health records among obstetrician-gynecologists.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the current use of electronic health records (EHRs) and their key subfunctions among obstetrician-gynecologists and compare this trend with other doctors.

METHODS

In this study, we examined responses to a large statewide study of EHR use among Florida physicians practicing in the ambulatory setting. For assessment purposes, we compared obstetrician-gynecologists with other primary care physicians (PCPs) and surgeons with respect to EHR utilization, the availability of key EHR functions, and time since adoption. In addition, we examined adoption intentions among non-EHR users. To compare differences among groups, the chi-square test was utilized with significance level set at P < .05.

RESULTS

A total of 2428 responses (28.4% response rate), of which 454 were from obstetrician-gynecologists, were available for the current study. EHR use among obstetrician-gynecologists (18.3%) was significantly less (P < .001) than among PCPs (25.7%) and surgeons (20.5%). Among EHR users, obstetrician-gynecologists were significantly less likely than PCPs to have the following desirable EHR functions: problem lists (P < .001), medication lists (P < .001), allergy information (P = .014), electronic prescribing of medications (P = .001), electronic order entry (P = .009), electronically available laboratory results (P = .002), electronic connection to pharmacy information (P = .008), preventative service reminders (P < .001), and patient education material (P = .004). Moreover, obstetrician-gynecologists were significantly more likely to have adopted their system within the last 2 years. However, among nonusers, they were not more likely to indicate the intention to adopt EHR.

CONCLUSION

Compared with peers, obstetrician-gynecologists are less likely to be using EHR in their practice. In addition, their systems tend to have fewer medical error preventing functions and fewer basic functions.