A new physician survey conducted by the RAND Corporation and sponsored by the American Medical Association reveals physicians, in general, see the potential and promise in electronic health records. The technology currently on the market and being used in hospitals, however, is taking a toll on physician satisfaction.
Just 18 percent of surveyed physicians expressed a desire to return to paper records. Many physicians reported EHRs improved their access to patient data, improved communication with patients and other providers and improved some aspects of care delivery, all leading to higher job satisfaction.
However, a majority of physicians expressed frustration with their current EHR system, and only 35 percent of respondents said EHRs currently improve their job satisfaction. Time-consuming data entry was a top concern, both for older physicians who tended to self-report weaker typing skills, though younger physicians also reported difficult data entry processes. Physicians also disliked how the user interfaces do not correspond to their clinical workflow, contained too many alerts and unnecessary warnings and often felt EHRs interfered with face-to-face time with their patients.
Interoperability was also cited as a main concern among physicians, as easy data exchange between providers was viewed as an unfulfilled promise of EHRs. Many also saw a disconnect between government-mandated meaningful use criteria and the functionalities and workflow that allow them to provide the best patient care.
EHRs were also seen as a detriment to practices' finances, detrimental to the quality of clinical documentation and were seen as requiring physicians to perform lower-skilled work.
Many physicians did express optimism about EHRs' technological development in the long term, though did not downplay the current frustrations. "I know that 10 years from now or 15 or 20 years from now, I can imagine that the next level of EHR is going to be software, smart software," said a general surgeon in the survey. "[But currently] we're in a very difficult, rudimentary phase of conversation to the EHR that quite honestly has, I think, been a bigger headache than advantage for physicians."
The survey results are based on in-person interviews with 220 physicians, and mailed survey responses from 447 physicians from 30 practices across the country.
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