The Use of Electronic Health Records in the Exam Room and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Physicians may hesitate to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems because they fear a decrease in patient satisfaction. We conducted a systematic review to determine whether physician EHR use in the patient room affects patient satisfaction.Methods: We searched the literature using MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Proceedings First, and ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Our inclusion criteria were a description of physician EHR use in the examination room, EHR use in an outpatient setting, setting in the United States, publication year no earlier than 2000, and measurement of patient satisfaction. We included both qualitative and quantitative research. We included 7 articles in the final analysis: 3 crosssectional, and 4 pre-design and post-design.Results: Several studies had methodological concerns. Six studies found that physician EHR use had either a positive or neutral effect on patient satisfaction. One study found a negative effect on the physicians' perception of patient satisfaction. The reported statistical results from these studies were not homogenous enough for meta-analysis. Conclusion

Surgeons' Perspective of a Newly Initiated Electronic Medical Record

“…In a cross-sectional retrospective analysis of hospitals under the Medicare Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, use of "advanced" EHRs did not detrimentally impact the patient experience (12). A separate multistudy review showed a positive or neutral assessment of patient experience with EHR use (13). Certain aspects of the EHR can enhance patients' experience, including access to their health records via a patient portal and easy-to-read and language-specifi c patient instructions that are available for physicians to use in patient education.…”

Impact of Electronic Medical Record Use on the Patient–Doctor Relationship and Communication: A Systematic Review

“…In addition, we examined references of prior review articles [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] and had two independent expert reviewers evaluate the results to ensure key articles were included. To explore publication bias, we reviewed meeting abstracts from two previous years of Society of General Internal Medicine, American Academy of Family Physicians and International Conference on Communication in Healthcare and European Association of Communication in Healthcare conferences for studies that may not have been published.…”

Does Health Information Technology Dehumanize Health Care?

“…Although some studies suggest that use of electronic medical records can adversely affect doctor-patient communication [4], most studies find neutral or positive effects on patient satisfaction [5]. The effect of HIT on communication depends on highly variable design features and implementation.…”