Computer Usage by U.S. Group Medcal Practces vs. 00 Importance.of.Different.Types.of.Savings.with...... Respect.to.Business.Aspects.of.the.Medical.Practice We then looked at the overall rankings of the importance of different types of savings or improvements to business practice that could be achieved by utilizing computers (columns 5 & 6, Table 6). We asked respondents to rank the importance of different types of savings from computer adoptions on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being very important). In more recent years (2003), respondents have been inclined to say that different savings are very important. On every one of thirteen categories in Table 6 (columns 5 and 6), the 2003 sample is 15% to 35% higher than their counterparts were in 1994. In both years, improving insurance claim processing was ranked as most important. In 1994, 70.2% said this but by 2003, 85.8% found this type of savings most important. Other important savings issues in 2003, with 70% or more ranking them as important, were improving patient record keeping, access to patient or hospital information, increasing cash flow and reducing administrative overhead. The next area was the comparison of the importance of different types of savings by the age of the practice (Table 7). These could be cost reduction or quality improve- ments. In Table 6, we have classified the savings. Overall, the three groups (0-10, 11-20, 21+) order of importance (by use) of the applications was the same although