More than 50% of physicians move to EMR

Physician use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is gaining critical mass. According to a survey recently conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, physician adoption rates have topped 50% for the first time in history. The accelerating rate of adoption is attributed to several factors, including peer pressure and financial incentives available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Bob Cook of amednews.com offers more detail on this exciting development in his article Physician EMR use passes 50% as incentives outweigh resistance.

This is good news for employment prospects in the healthcare documentation field, which will require the services of medical transcriptionists, medical scribes, speech recognition editors, and other documentation professionals. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a 26% increase in the need for this profession in the next several years. If your 2011 resolutions include developing a new career path, healthcare may be the way to go!