Trends in Electronic Health Record Use Among Residential Care Communities: United States, 2012, 2014, and 2016

Introduction-This report presents a trend analysis of electronic health record (EHR) use and health information exchange capability among residential care communities. EHR systems and health information exchange have the potential to improve communication and facilitate care coordination, especially during care transitions. Methods-Data in this report are from the residential care community survey component of the 2012, 2014, and 2016 waves of the biennial National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP), which is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. For the EHR use measure, respondents were asked if, for other than accounting or billing purposes, they used EHRs. Among those who indicated they did use EHRs, health information exchange capability was also measured using items that asked residential care communities if their computerized system supported electronic health information exchange with physicians or pharmacies. A weighted least-squares regression was used to test the significance of trends across the 2012, 2014, and 2016 NSLTCP waves by several residential care community characteristics, including bed size, ownership status, chain affiliation, U.S. Census division, and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) status. Results-The percentage of residential care communities that used EHRs increased between 2012 and 2016 overall (20% to 26%), for all bed size categories, profit and nonprofit ownership, chain and nonchain affiliation, six out of nine census divisions, and MSA and non-MSA status. Among residential care communities reporting EHR use, computerized support for health information exchange with physicians or pharmacies also increased between 2012 and 2016 overall (47.2% to 55.0%) and among communities that had more than 100 beds, were for profit, chain affiliated, located in the East North and East South Central census divisions, and in both MSAs and non-MSAs.