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If a new snapshot of California medical practices and hospitals is any indication, the use of health IT systems is fast becoming a way of medical life in the country's most populous state--particularly among larger practices.

The California HealthCare Foundation's study, "The State of Health Information Technology in California," finds that:

• More medical practices have health IT systems than not, 48 percent versus 46 percent.

• Larger practices are far more likely to have electronic health records, with 80 percent of practices with 51 or more physicians having EHRs, versus 39 percent of practices with two to five physicians and 20 percent of solo practitioners.
• More than half of primary-care physicians, 55 percent, use EHRs. Almost all of those physicians enter clinical notes electronically.
• 59 percent of mid-size practices (six to 50 physicians) use health IT to access clinical information, compared with one-third of solo practitioners. Meanwhile, 84 percent of hospitals and medical schools retrieve clinical data electronically.
• Fewer than half of primary-care physicians, 46 percent, ordered lab tests electronically, and only 40 percent do so routinely.

The survey found that implementation rates for e-prescribing and other health IT tools also corresponded with the size of medical practices. Health IT use, though, has grown significantly across practices of varying sizes since the last snapshot was taken in 2008, the foundation said in the report summary.

The study also found that while nearly 90 percent of California hospitals either have or are installing health IT clinical decision-support systems, only 40 percent have order-entry systems installed.

In another finding, EHRs are now in place in nearly half of community clinics, compared with 3 percent in 2005.

Adoption of EHRs and other health IT technology is expected to accelerate as more federal incentive funds becomes available, the foundation says in the report summary. "This financial support is a critical factor in transitioning the California health care system from the early stages of HIT adoption to a phase in which technology is effectively and routinely leveraged to create a safer and more efficient care delivery system," the foundation says.

The Oakland-based nonprofit works to improve the quality, efficiency and availability of health care and to lower costs.