Health IT Research & Analysis
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Office-based Physician Electronic Health Record Adoption

Last Updated

June 2021

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EHR adoption has more than doubled since 2008

As of 2021, nearly 9 in 10 (88%) of U.S. office-based physicians adopted any electronic health record (EHR)[2], and nearly 4 in 5 (78%) had adopted a certified EHR[4]. This is a consistent trend since 2015. Since 2008, office-based physician adoption of any EHRs has more than doubled, from 42% to 88%. Since ONC and the CDC began tracking it in 2014, the percent of office-based physicians that adopted a certified EHR increased from 74% to 78%

YearAny EHRBasic EHRCertified EHR
200420.8%——
200523.9%——
200629.2%10.5%—
200734.8%11.8%—
200842.0%16.9%—
200948.3%11.8%—
201051.0%27.9%—
201157.0%33.9%—
201271.8%39.6%—
201378.4%48.1%—
201482.8%50.5%74.0%
201586.9%53.9%77.9%
201686.9%—77.0%
201785.9%—79.7%
201892.1%—78.7%
201990.0%—72.0%
202188.0%—78.0%

  1. Physicians adopted a Basic EHR if they reported their practice performed all of the following computerized functions: patient demographics, patient problem lists, electronic lists of medications taken by patients, clinician notes, orders for medications, viewing laboratory results, and viewing imaging results. The core capabilities of a Basic EHR were defined by DesRoches, et al. in the 2008 manuscript.
  2. Any EHR system is a medical or health record system that is either all or partially electronic, and excludes systems solely for billing.
  3. Data include non-federal, office-based physicians, and exclude radiologists, anesthesiologists, and pathologists.
  4. A certified EHR system is one that meets the requirements adopted by the US Department of Health and Human Services.