Ambulatory surgery centers' use of Health Information Technology

Purpose: The use of Health Information Technology is imperative to timely and quality patient care. Despite the projected benefits of information technology and the high frequency of physician office hand-offs to ambulatory surgery centers, it is not clear how, or even if, information technology is used internally by ambulatory surgery centers, or if it is used as patients transition to and from ambulatory surgery settings. Methodology: An online survey of Wisconsin's ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) explored the use of Health Information Technology and Electronic Health Records to ascertain the extent of their use within the surgery centers and externally as patients move between outpatient settings. Results: Approximately 47% of the participating surgery centers reported no use of Electronic Health Records. Thirty-Seven percent reported no access to, and no use of, any core Electronic Health Record functions. Conclusions: The use of Health Information Technology both within and between ambulatory surgery centers in Wisconsin is low. This supports other studies that find the adoption of Electronic Health Records in surgery practices tends to be lower than in other specialties. This low adoption rate might be attributed to on-going problems and concerns with interoperability and with the high cost to practices in terms of financial investment and initial drops in productivity. (c) 2015 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.