A new study by IDC Health Insights has found nearly 60% of ambulatory providers as dissatisfied with their Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions with usability and workflow as two major associated problems.
The study, which included 212 ambulatory and hospital-based providers, had a uniform conclusion that while adoption of EHRs is on the rise, physicians were largely dissatisfied due to usage and workflow issues. Nearly 58% of providers were dissatisfied, very dissatisfied or neutral about their experiences with EHRs.
Issues highlighted by providers which hamper EHR productivity include poor usability, inappropriate form factors and user interfaces, access to mobile technology, workflow tools and configurations, inadequate training, inadequate staffing and support, inefficient processes and application uptime and availability.
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“Despite achieving meaningful use, most office-based providers find themselves at lower productivity levels than before the implementation of EHR,” said IDC Research Director Judy Hanover Workflow, in a press statement. “Usability, productivity and supplier quality issues continue to drive dissatisfaction and need to be addressed by suppliers and practices.”
Some of the additional findings from the survey included:
- The top three goals for providers implementing EHR include regulatory compliance (56 percent), improving the quality of care (43 percent) and qualifying for Meaningful Use incentives (40 percent).
- The two most frequent reasons for EHR dissatisfaction involved lost productivity – spending more time on documentation (85 percent) and seeing fewer patients (66 percent).
- Providers who were satisfied with EHRs cited the top reasons were a reduction in the number of lost or missing charts (82 percent), the ability to access medical records and work remotely (75 percent) and incentive payments (56 percent).
- The top five tasks for which physicians use EHRs include: accessing patient information, documenting care, e-prescribing, viewing labs and diagnostic tests results, and entering orders.
Although EHRs are being used widely by US physicians, it is imperative to understand the reasons for their satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It is crucial for EHR vendors to address the issues troubling providers if they are to sustain in the market in the future.
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The writer is a leading Health IT analyst contributing regularly on some of the most pressing topics like Electronic Health Records, Practice Management, eRx, Patient Portal, Billing Services, Compliance and Privacy and Security.
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