Do electronic medical record (EMR) demonstrations change attitudes, knowledge, skills or needs?

Abstract

Introduction Electronic medical records (EMRs) are the future of primary care. Transition to electronic records can have a significant impact on physicians, office staff, nursing staff and patients. There are no published EMR studies combining these four populations or studies that have evaluated the impact of EMR demonstrations. To better understand the impact of EMRs, an online survey was administered before and after EMR demonstrations. Methods A longitudinal cohort survey design was used to assess primary outcomes (attitudes, knowledge, skills and needs) related to EMRs in four populations that were divided into two groupsone of physicians and the other of nursing staff, office staff and patients. A total of 39 participants (19 physicians and 20 staff/patients) completed a pretest survey four weeks prior to and post-test surveys at four and ten weeks after EMR demonstrations. Mean composite scores for each primary outcome were calculated for each group and mean differences were calculated and compared within and between groups -from baseline to four weeks

Assessing attitudes toward electronic prescribing adoption in primary care: a survey of prescribers and staff

“…Demonstrations of use were helpful; Beiter et al found the same. 38 Prescribers were enthusiastic about the ability to prescribe from home, which may correlate with the proportion of prescribers who indicated that they use a computer at home for professional use, especially the increase seen for SL prescribers, when comparing Phase 2 with Phase 1. This in turn was associated with scores on the four domains.…”

Electronic Health Record and Problem Lists in Leeds, United Kingdom: Variability of general practitioners’ views

“…8 It is known that clinicians' attitude towards EHR depends on many factors including computer literacy, 9 cost and interoperability, 5 public opinion, 10 privacy concerns, 5,10,11,12 reliability, 13 and the will to share among the clinical teams 12 and with the patients, 14 but there is no guideline or policy on what should be shared and what type of code should populate the Problem List. Implementation and use of EHR is affected positively by demonstration of the EHR 15 and access to simulations. 16 Perhaps more important is the fact that, even if there are initial barriers to EHRs, they are used successfully by all clinicians 17 despite concerns about the interference with the process of the consultation 18,19 or its effect on decision-making.…”

Informing the development of a national diabetes register in Ireland: a literature review of the impact of patient registration on diabetes care

“…7,8 Diabetes registration systems can be effective in organising patient education and communication, for patients to receive online information and for generating reminders. 34 Impact on processes of care and clinical outcomes Diabetes registers and EMRs used for tracking diabetes patients are implicitly and explicitly promoted as effective and necessary management tools with the potential for improving diabetes care. 35,36 The extent to which this information system is developed, updated and integrated by health professionals into the process of care for diabetes patients depends on whether they believe that a diabetes register will impact on patient quality of care and outcomes.…”