Care coordination benefits achieved through the use of electronic health records depends on the cohesion of the primary care team, according to a study in Health Services Research.
Researchers administered three annual surveys to more than 500 primary care clinicians in a large integrated delivery system coinciding with the system's staggered implementation of an integrated EHR system. The researchers then used the responses to examine the effect of EHR use and team cohesion on care coordination, as indicated by timely clinician access to patient information and treatment agreement and responsibility agreement among the clinicians.
Results showed more cohesive teams were able to make the best use of the EHR, significantly improving timely access to complete patient information (53.5 percent of teams using an EHR versus 37.6 percent not using the EHR), agreement on treatment goals (64.3 percent versus 50.6 percent) and agreement on responsibilities (63.9 percent vs. 55.2 percent).
Among teams that reported low levels of cohesion, researchers found no statistically significant association between EHR use and improved care coordination.
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