Adoption of electronic medical records in US hospitals

Electronic medical records is becoming increasingly prevalent in health care delivery systems in the United States. More than 80% of hospitals are expected to have EHR systems in place by November 2017. It can take two to three years for a hospital to become a "EMR destination" EMRs reduce the risk of medical errors and increase patient satisfaction. Many hospitals use “physician champions’ to educate doctors on the benefits of EMR. EMR adoption has increased most among large hospitals and those in urban areas. The key suppliers of health data systems are Epic Systems, Allscripts, Meditech, Cerner, IBM, McKesson, Siemens, Healthland, CPSI, and GE Healthcare. In 2011, the number of acute care hospitals achieving Stage 5 or Stage 6 increased by more than 80 percent.