Primary Care Electronic Health Data: Good to the Last Byte

Abstract: The Commonwealth survey compares 11 countries in relationship to a variety of primary care indicators, including quality and access to care, efficiency, equity and healthy lives. Of the 11 countries, France and Canada rank ninth and tenth, respectively. The cost of care is about the same except in the United States, which is higher. Some of the gap may be explained with the use of electronic medical records (EMR) in the higher-performing countries. This is not only whether or not primary care practitioners have an electronic records system but also whether they are used in a meaningful way to make practices more efficient and to provide better care.