First, let’s define the total size of the market we are analyzing. Of the roughly 788,000 physicians in the United States, 65% of them work in an outpatient facility or physician’s practice, according to the Bureau of Labor & figures. That’s 512,000 possible physicians who are in the outpatient EHR software market.

According to a recent study of office-based physicians on the loose by the Center for Disease Control and avoidance (CDC), 44% of those of 512,000 office-based doctors had adopted either a partial, basic, or fully functional EHR system. That’s 225,000 outpatient doctors using an EHR to some extent. Here’s how EHR adoption breaks down among the total number (512,000) of outpatient physicians in the United States:

Outpatient EHR Adoption, 2009

• No EHR adoption, 56%
• Basic EHR adoption, 21%
• Partial EHR adoption, 17%
• Fully functional EHR adoption, 6%



The CDC defines “partial” EHR systems as those not exclusively used for billing. “Basic” systems include the following functionalities: patient demographic in sequence, patient problem lists, and clinical notes, orders for prescription, and screening laboratory and imaging results.

Systems distinct by the CDC as “entirely functional” include all functionalities of a basic system plus these functionalities: checkup history and follow-up, orders for tests, teaching and test orders sent electronically, warnings of drug connections or contraindications, importance of out-of-range test levels, electronic images returned, and reminders for guideline-based interventions.

EMR