See how outpatient mental health facilities that reported telehealth answered a separate question about outside EHR records. Includes state counts and methods.
In the 2024 SAMHSA public-use file, 5,348 of 9,696 outpatient mental health facility records that reported telehealth therapy (55.2%) answered no when asked whether their EHR integrated outside clinical information without manual entry.
These facilities used an electronic health record (EHR) and gave yes or no answers to both survey questions. The analysis covers the 50 states and DC. It gives buyers a starting point for a practical question: what can a clinician bring into the chart when they see a patient by video? Download national and state counts (CSV).
What did mental health telehealth facilities report?
Among included records, 9,696 reported telehealth therapy and 1,284 answered no to that item. Of the records reporting telehealth, 4,348 answered yes to the separate question about integrating clinical information received electronically from outside providers without manual entry. The remaining 5,348 answered no.
| Reported telehealth therapy | Yes to outside integration | No to outside integration | Total | Share answering no |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 4,348 | 5,348 | 9,696 | 55.2% |
| No | 535 | 749 | 1,284 | 58.3% |
The two rows count different sets of facility records. Treat the percentages as descriptive. Facilities can differ in size, service mix, outside partners, and technology. The comparison does not show that offering telehealth changes a facility’s exchange capabilities.
How does the result vary by state?
The same calculation can be applied to any state or DC. In the examples below, the denominator is the number of records in that state reporting telehealth therapy and giving a yes or no answer to the outside integration question.
| Geography | Included records reporting telehealth | Answered no to outside integration | Share answering no |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 699 | 346 | 49.5% |
| Florida | 385 | 232 | 60.3% |
| Illinois | 369 | 205 | 55.6% |
| New York | 567 | 289 | 51.0% |
| Texas | 305 | 186 | 61.0% |
The full table contains the counts for all 50 states and DC. Some rows have small denominators. For example, three of 14 included telehealth records in DC answered no. One additional record in a group that size can shift the percentage by several points. Use the count and denominator together. Download the full table.
What did the survey ask?
Question B6 in the 2024 questionnaire asks facilities about services including “telemedicine/telehealth therapy.” It includes internet, web, mobile, and desktop programs. Question EHR3, described in the 2024 codebook, asks about integrating electronically received outside clinical information “without manual entry.”
Both questions are about the facility. The outpatient answer identifies a setting the facility offered, while the telehealth answer identifies a reported therapy modality. A facility can offer more than one setting. These answers do not show which services used telehealth or how often. The exchange answer also does not identify the sending provider, document type, or exchange method.
A yes to exchange means the facility reported the capability described in the question. It gives no count of successful transfers. A no can have different causes, and the public-use data do not identify those causes for this analysis. Use a direct test with the outside documents your staff actually receive. Buyer guide to outside records.
What can buyers ask to see in a demo?
Give each vendor a fictional telehealth follow-up and a visit summary from an outside clinician. The practice wants its clinician to find the summary during the appointment and know what to do when a corrected copy arrives. Bring the same example to every vendor.
| Team | What to ask about |
|---|---|
| Intake | Who receives the outside summary, and how does that person identify the patient and appointment? |
| Clinical | Can the clinician read the original document? What information becomes part of the receiving chart, and how is its source shown? |
| Operations | When a corrected copy arrives, how do staff identify the current version and know who owns any remaining review? |
A buyer can record the observed result for each question. Include the type of source, who can see the original, what was transferred, and whether staff entered anything by hand. A different outside organization or document format can produce a different result. Telehealth EHR buyer guide · Mental health practice EHR buyer guide.
Reproduce the calculation
Use the Delimited archive listed under SAMHSA’s 2024 N-SUMHSS data files. Open NSUMHSS_2024_PUF_CSV.csv and use one count per facility record.
- Keep records from the 50 states and DC in
LOCATIONSTATEwithSETTINGOPequal to 1, indicating outpatient mental health care. - Keep
EHR1equal to 1 or 2, which includes facilities that used an EHR exclusively and facilities that combined an EHR with paper charts. There are 11,115 records after these filters. - Keep records with a 0 or 1 in both
TREATTELEMEDINCEandEHR3. A 1 means yes and a 0 means no. The analysis excludes 135 records without both valid answers, leaving 10,980. - Within each geography, count each of the four combinations. For the national total, add the state and DC counts. In each telehealth group, divide the number answering no to
EHR3by that group’s total and round to one decimal place.
The results are unweighted counts. A large facility and a small one contribute equally. The percentages describe survey records with the stated answers. They do not estimate patient access, the share of appointments performed by video, or current exchange capabilities.
Cite the figures with the denominator
For the main result, cite the Ease Health analysis of the 2024 SAMHSA N-SUMHSS public-use file. Specify that 5,348 of 9,696 included outpatient mental health facility records reporting telehealth therapy answered no to integration of outside clinical information without manual entry. For state figures, give the geography, its count and denominator, and the same survey year and filters.
The downloadable CSV contains each of the four answer combinations, both group totals, and the two percentages. The national row sums the state and DC rows, so use it separately when aggregating the file. Cite SAMHSA for the survey and Ease Health for this calculation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often did mental health telehealth facilities integrate outside records without manual entry?
Of 9,696 included records that reported telehealth therapy, 4,348 (44.8%) answered yes to the separate question about integrating electronically received outside clinical information without manual entry. The other 5,348 (55.2%) answered no.
Which facilities are included in the telehealth analysis?
The analysis includes 2024 SAMHSA facility records in the 50 states and DC that reported outpatient mental health care and EHR use and answered yes or no to both the telehealth and outside record questions.
Does the survey show how facilities imported records for individual telehealth visits?
The survey asked about facility capabilities. It did not track individual visits, the outside provider involved, the type of record exchanged, or whether an integration was used for a particular telehealth appointment.
What outside record should a team use in a telehealth EHR demo?
Use a fictional outside visit summary and a corrected version. Ask the clinician to show what can be viewed, what becomes part of the patient chart, and how the team distinguishes the corrected version.
