Here are five findings on health IT interoperability and accessibility to patient records, according to a national Epocrates survey, published by athenahealth.
• Ninety-five percent of physicians experienced a delay or difficulty delivering medical care because patients' health records were not accessible/shared.
• Only 14 percent of physicians said they can access usable electronic health information across all care delivery sites.
• Eighty-seven percent of physicians identified EHR technical shortcomings as the leading barrier to interoperability.
• Around 79 percent of physicians ranked the ability to access relevant patient data from other EHR systems as "very important."
• Even when physicians practice within the same organization, only 44 percent report they can share patient information.