Accenture Annual Survey Finds HIE Increase

Accenture is a leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with offices and clients worldwide. There healthcare services are helping from the back office to the doctor’s office. Accenture recently announced the results of their annual healthcare survey. The survey was conducted online to 3,700 doctors across eight countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain and the United States. Approximately 500 doctors per country (200 for Singapore) participated in the survey, which assessed doctors’ attitudes and perceptions on the benefits of health information and communications technology. The survey was conducted between November 16, 2012 and December 27, 2012.

Results reported 93 percent of US doctors actively using electronic medical records while 45 percent of all the doctors are regularly accessing clinical data outside their organizations. This is an increase of 32 percent from last year showing the growing importance of health information exchange (HIE).

Other finding showed a 32 percent increase in US doctors overall use of healthcare IT. In that use the doctors report the highest use is e-prescribing and patient notes. And of those, 65 percent are using e-prescribing and 78 percent are entering patient notes. The doctors are also using health IT for basic clinical tasks, 45 percent use for receiving alerts while seeing patients, and 57 percent reported regular use of electronic lab ordering. With a 24 percent increase, 62 percent of doctors say they receive their lab tests directly into their EHR systems. Accenture has compiled their survey research into two reports that you can download.

Doctors Survey: US Country Profile – The analysis provided comparisons by country, sector, age and use. The margin of error for the eight study countries in total is +/- 1.5% and the margin of error for the US is +/- 4%. This 30 page report covers the methods, research highlights, key findings, physician demographics, and comparative country findings. See more information on the overview, background, analysis, recommendations and download the report.

The Digital Doctor is “In”, Accenture Eight-Country Survey of Doctors Shows Significant Increase in Healthcare IT Usage – The survey compares findings from last year’s survey to reveal prevailing perceptions among doctors today, and show trends across areas of healthcare IT. Based on this year’s findings that show increasing levels of adoption of EMR and HIE, the digital doctor is in— and is here to stay. See more information on the overview, background, analysis, recommendations and download the report.