Study: Physicians Trust EHRs More than Paper Records

San Francisco – November 2, 2011 – A recent survey conducted by New York, N.Y-based research firm GfK Roper on behalf of web-based EHR provider Practice Fusion (San Francisco, Calif.) asked patients about their views on the safety of EHR versus paper charts while a separate survey posed the same questions to medical professionals. The results: a majority of physicians reported that EHRs are safer than their paper record counterparts, citing accessibility of data as the top safety benefit. 54 percent of physicians said EHRS are safer with only 18 percent of respondents selecting paper as the safer option. The answers on the patient side were a bit different with 47 percent stating that paper was safer and 39 percent believing that EHRs are actually the safer option. Patients who said EHRs are safer for the most part strongly agree that being able to access records when needed is the greatest benefit of EHRs over paper. Of doctors who said EHRs were safer, access to records when needed is the top benefit (63 percent). Doctors who select paper charts as the safer option believed that paper is more secure because it is less likely to be hacked or lost (36 percent) The patient sample was a random survey of 1,006 adults age 18 or older. The physician survey was conducted online using the same questions with a sample of 1,220 medical professionals.