Twenty-six percent of past hospital patients and their care supervisors believe that electronic medical records are currently available to them, and another 46% believe EMRs will be used at their local hospitals in the next five years, according to a survey from Siemens Medical Solutions. Sixty-three percent of respondents said it would be "very valuable" to have their complete electronic medical history available anywhere in a hospital, Modern Physician reports. A survey from Modern Physician and the Kennedy Group to be published later this month found that 17% of medical groups already have EMRs and another 19% said they are either implementing them or plan to within a year. A November 2003 survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Modern Physician found that nearly 42% of physician executives said they had invested in some type of EMRs, and another 38% said they would within two years (Conn, Modern Physician, 2/10).
The Siemens survey, which included 948 responses, found that 41% of respondents said cost was their biggest health care priority, followed by 25% who cited quality of care (Siemens Medical Solutions, 2/10).