Do EHRs Help Or Hurt Doctor/Patient Relationships?
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
A study has found EHR use has both positive and negative effects on the doctor/patient relationship.
Research published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) has found EHRs may not be as bad an influence on doctor/patient relationships as once thought. While older doctors may see EHRs as a distraction, younger doctors see the software as a tool rather than a nuisance.
“One of the most important skills a physician can have is the ability to communicate well with his or her patients while conducting a well-organized and purposeful visit,” write researchers. “To examine the impact of the use of a computer in the exam room on the communication skills of first-year residents in internal medicine, we conducted a study using the Four Habits communication rating tool.”
The Four Habits is a questionnaire that examines provider/patient communication at a subject matter level. According to the report, it breaks up communication into four sequential behaviors (habits), based on an idealized model of how a visit should be conducted, and assesses the performance of the provider for each task.
EHR Intelligence explains residents from the University of Utah School of Medicine were followed for three months in 2012. They examined patients and used either paper charts or an EHR while video was taken of their interactions with patients.
Some resident’s habits were subpar, such as lack of communication about what they were writing or typing. However, other residents performed better when using electronic records. For example, when physicians used EHR systems, they score statistically better in six out of 23 skilled areas as compared to the paper chart.
“The results suggest that, in contrast to many established providers’ perceptions about the effects of EHRs, internal medicine residents using EHRs performed better, at least statistically and probably clinically, at communication tasks that are part of a recognized model of patient-centric primary care visits,” concluded researchers. “However, we did see some evidence of potential negative impacts on communication behaviors, primarily on placing the chart in view of the patient and possibly on maintaining eye contact during the interview.”