Source

2012-2022 American Hospital Association Health Information Technology Supplements.

Citation

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. ‘Hospital Routine Electronic Notification’ Health IT Quick Stat #26.

In 2022, 3 in 4 non-federal acute care hospitals routinely electronically notified a patient's primary care provider upon his or her entry to the hospital's emergency department – a nearly two-fold increase since 2012. Seventy percent of all hospitals routinely electronically notified primary care providers inside the hospital's system; whereas, 59 percent of all hospitals routinely electronically notify physicians outside the hospital's system.

Percent of U.S. Hospitals that Routinely Electronically Notify Patient's  Primary Care Provider upon Emergency Room Entry 

Line chart titled “Percent of U.S. Hospitals that Routinely Electronically Notify Patient's Primary Care Provider upon Emergency Room Entry.” The y-axis shows percentages from 0% to 100%. The x-axis lists years from 2012 to 2022. The first line shows the portion of hospitals that routinely notify primary care providers of their patients’ emergency room entry and displays the following data points: 39% in 2012, 48% in 2013, 56% in 2014, 59% in 2015, 63% in 2016, 70% in 2019, 72% in 2021, and 76% in 2022. The second line shows the percentage of hospitals that routinely notify both inside and outside the system and displays the following data points: 16% in 2012, 21% in 2013, 27% in 2014, 29% in 2015, 29% in 2016, 31% in 2019, 43% in 2021, and 53% in 2022. The next line displays the portion of hospitals that routinely notify inside the system only and shows 21% in 2012, 24% in 2013, 27% in 2014, 28% in 2015, 31% in 2016, 27% in 2019, 17% in 2021, and 17% in 2022. The final line shows the percentage of hospitals that routinely notify outside of the system only and shows 2% in 2012, 3% in 2013, 2% in 2014, 2% in 2015, 2% in 2016, 11% in 2019, 12% in 2021, and 6% in 2022.  

 

Percent of Hospitals with Capability

Routine Electronic Notification

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2019

2021

2022

Routinely Notifies

39%

48%

56%

59%

63%

70%

72%

76%

Routinely Notifies Inside and Outside System

16%

21%

27%

29%

29%

31%

43%

53%

Routinely Notifies Only Inside System

21%

24%

27%

28%

31%

27%

17%

17%

Routinely Notifies Only Outside System

2%

3%

2%

2%

2%

11%

12%

6%

Statistics are calculated from answers to survey questions: "When a patient visits your Emergency Department, do you routinely provide electronic notification to the patient's primary care physician?" [Yes/No] and "If yes, are electronic notifications provided to primary care physicians listed below?" [Inside of Your System/Outside of Your System]. These questions were not asked in 2017 and 2018, and responses were not available for 2020 due to pandemic-related delays in survey fielding. Notably, the 2020 Supplement (fielded in 2021) included additional granularity in the response options for the "When a patient visits your Emergency Department, do you routinely provide electronic notification to the patient's primary care physician?" question. Respondents were able to indicate that their hospitals “Yes, routinely” or “Yes, but not routinely” provide electronic notification, and responses were not counted in the numerators of the calculated statistics if “Yes, but not routinely” was selected. To maintain consistency with prior analytic approaches, non-response and do not know responses are included in the denominators of calculated statistics.