The Growing Gap in Electronic Medical Record Satisfaction Between Clinicians and Information Technology Professionals

Abstract

EHRs have the potential to become a powerful tool that may improve many processes related to health care, including quality, safety, and economical aspects. The involvement of physicians in every step of the process, from electronic medical record selection to acquisition, implementation, and ongoing optimization, is crucial for enabling the achievement of the medical organization's mission.

Development and evaluation of a customizable electron-ic medical record for clinical outcomes research and patient engagement

“…On the other hand, many barriers prevent wider implementation and use of EMRs. Besides being cost-prohibitive, most EMRs are inflexible, not user friendly, inaccessible, and unable to be modified on site (Chang and Gupta, 2015;Shaha et al, 2015;Zhang and Zhang, 2016). The EMR-RT system developed in this study has provided all of the benefits that EMRs are supposed to provide, while overcoming the barriers associated with existing EMRs.…”

“…The initial outlay for EMR purchase and the continuing fee-for-service for some EMRs is outright prohibitive (Chang and Gupta, 2015). EMR installation costs range from $16,000 to $36,000 per physician, with maintenance costs ranging from $8,000 to 17,000 per physician per year (Shaha et al, 2015). In order to overcome some of these financial barriers to EMR implementation, the use of free and open-source software, without licensing costs, is attractive to those with limited resources who still want the benefits of EMRs (Zhang and Zhang, 2016).…”

“…In order to overcome some of these financial barriers to EMR implementation, the use of free and open-source software, without licensing costs, is attractive to those with limited resources who still want the benefits of EMRs (Zhang and Zhang, 2016). Beyond the financial barriers to purchasing an EMR, there is a growing dissatisfaction among physicians with the EMR platforms available (Shaha et al, 2015). Clinician dissatisfaction with EMRs center around the limitations, inaccessibility, and lack of adaptability imposed by the system.…”

“…However, the EMR requires both physicians to use the same data entry fields, and the extraction and analysis of that data are determined by the EMR software, not the physician. Meaningful use data for a clinician is what he/she needs for continuous improvement in patient care, not for standardized reports dictated by an EMR (Shaha et al, 2015). EMRs need to be adaptable for local clinical needs and programmable in order to maximize the use of relevant patient population data.…”

“…Clinicians are also interested in clinical outcomes research that is specific to their clinical reach and patient population. EMR data must be accessible for ad hoc analysis, and exportable to other analysisfocused systems so that quality-improvement measures can be made to meet the needs of clinicians, patients, and clinical practices (Shaha et al, 2015). With all of this in mind, the objective of this study was to design and evaluate a customizable EMRReporting Tool (EMR-RT) platform that can be used as an adjunct to an existing EMR or as a sole-standing EMR-RT for clinical outcome's research and patient engagement.…”