The Effect of EHR Adoption on Health Education, Time, and Return Rates

In this analysis, we use National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data to investigate whether the adoption of the ambulatory electronic health records (EHR) system is associated with changes in patient-specific health education prescription rates, patient-physician interaction time, and returned appointment rates. We estimate the treatment effect of EHR adoption with multinomial propensity score weighting adjusted regressions. We find evidence to suggest that full EHR adoption positively affects patient-specific health education prescription rates. We find no robust evidence to show a significant effect of the EHR system on time utilization or returned appointment rates. We discuss possible reasons for our findings. We recommend linking patient education with quality improvement efforts and improving the usability of EHR systems.