Computerized Capability of Office-Based Physicians to Identify Patients Who Need Preventive or Follow-up Care — United States, 2017

[摘要] Preventive care or follow-up care have the potential to improve health outcomes, reduce disease in the population, and decrease health care costs in the long-term ( 1 ). Approximately one half of persons in the United States receive general recommended preventive services ( 2 , 3 ). Missed physician appointments can hinder the receipt of needed health care ( 4 ). With electronic health record (EHR) systems able to improve interaction and communication between patients and providers ( 5 ), electronic reminders are used to decrease missed care. These reminders can improve various types of preventive and follow-up care, such as immunizations ( 6 ) and cancer screening ( 7 ); however, computerized capability must exist to make use of these reminders. To examine this capability among U.S. office-based physicians, data from the National Electronic Health Records Survey (NEHRS) for 2017, the most recent data available, were analyzed. An estimated 64.7% of office-based physicians had computerized capability to identify patients who were due for preventive or follow-up care, with 72.9% of primary care physicians and 71.4% of physicians with an EHR system having this capability compared with surgeons (54.8%), nonprimary care physicians (58.5%), and physicians without an EHR system (23.4%). Having an EHR system is associated with the ability to send electronic reminders to increase receipt of preventive or follow-up care, which has been shown to improve patient health outcomes ( 8 ).

[学科分类] 医学（综合）