Early results from an annual survey of provider practices show that more than half of the physicians who responded use at least partial EHRs in their offices, slightly higher than the 2009 figure of 48.3 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics conducts the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of physicians in person and by mail to gauge their adoption of basic and fully functional EHRs. CDC published its preliminary 2010 results on Dec. 8.

The number of physicians adopting electronic health records in their office practices, now at 50.7 percent, is creeping steadily higher, even as the Health and Human Services Department dangles the prospect of paying out billions in incentive payments starting in 2011 to healthcare providers who become meaningful users of certified EHRs.
 
In 2009, 21.8 percent of physicians who had EHRs said they used a basic system and 6.9 percent a fully functional system. In preliminary 2010 estimates, 24.9 percent of physicians employed a basic system, and 10.1 percent a fully functional system, according to the survey.

Basic systems support features such medication lists and the ability to view imaging, while a fully functional system can also support medical history, drug interaction warnings, electronic prescribing and computerized orders for lab tests.

States where physicians practiced with EHRs at a significantly higher rate than the national average were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Hawaii, according to CDC.