Creating a survey to assess physicians' adoption of health information technology

Information on state-level health information technology (HIT) adoption will become increasingly important with the implementation of incentive payments to accelerate uptake. Recognizing this, the Rhode Island Department of Health selected physician HIT adoption as a subject for its legislatively mandated quality reporting program. This article discusses the state's process for developing HIT adoption measures, including the importance of stakeholder involvement in the development of a survey and the difficulty of accurately defining electronic medical record (EMR) adoption. This article describes the challenges in defining "true" EMRs, which may be addressed, in part, by ensuring local consensus about EMR measures and by piloting the survey and measures, prior to public reporting or the calculation of a statewide baseline. It also presents results from the 2009 administration of this survey to all 3,883 Rhode Island-licensed physicians providing direct patient care.