Fewer than half of primary care physicians in patient-centered medical homes routinely utilize health IT to support care coordination, indicating health IT capabilities are not aligned with these clinicians' priorities, according to a study in Annals of Family Medicine.
Researchers surveyed primary care practices that achieved patient-centered medical home recognition and participated in the meaningful use program to determine the use of health IT among physicians in care coordination activities.
The survey found the use of IT systems in care coordination ranged from 39.4 percent for identifying patients with an ED visit to 80.9 percent having a system for remote access to patients' medical records.
Out of 10 potential care coordination activities using IT, clinicians on average conduct six of them using IT systems.
"Greater delegation to nonclinicians and improvements in system capacity for change may improve practices' ability to perform care coordination activities with electronic support," researchers concluded.
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