Physician dissatisfaction with EHRs has long plagued the healthcare industry on its path toward digitization.
The HITECH Act made implementing EHRs mandatory, and in the face of potential reimbursement cuts, many hospitals and health systems quickly adopted EHRs to satisfy federal requirements, though operational, workflow and optimization issues remain.
Six years after the HITECH Act was passed, the healthcare industry still faces problems with clinician satisfaction and EHRs. Chief among these complaints is a lack of national standards to aggregate data, no integrated communication, systems are not user-friendly, no way to access the data needed at point of care and few regulated governance over EHRs, health IT leaders and experts told Becker's Hospital Review earlier this year.
Additionally, many physicians report EHRs contribute to their workloads and decrease productivity. A Medscape report called "EHR Report 2012" that surveyed physicians on EHRs in physician practices found 26 percent of physicians felt EHRs decreased productivity.
The healthcare industry is now largely past the implementation phase of IT systems and is moving into the optimization phase, which includes addressing such issues and helping further seamlessly integrate EHRs into hospitals and physician practices.
To learn about how to improve EHR usability and efficiency, join Becker's Hospital Review and Microsoft in an upcoming webinar called "Clinical Mobility: Improving EHR Access, Streamlining Communications, and Helping Clinicians Get Home Earlier" on Tuesday, June 2.
Click here to register.