Electronic Health Records User Satisfaction Falls 12 Percent Since 2010
By John Oncea, Editor
Follow John on Twitter: @buck25
Users who are “very dissatisfied” increased 10 percent during same time period
Medical News Today reported Thursday the results of a report from the American College of Physicians indicating “satisfaction and usability ratings for certified electronic health records (EHRs) have decreased since 2010 among clinicians across a range of indicators.” The announcement was made at the 2013 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition. According to Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, FACP, who leads ACP's Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality division, the report “highlight(s) the need for the Meaningful Use program and EHR manufacturers to focus on improving EHR features and usability.”
Earlier in the week Healthcare IT News detailed frustrations physicians are experiencing with Meaningful Use citing a “15 percent increase in reports that practices are "very dissatisfied" with their EHRs since 2010.” Making matters worse for these physicians, EHR Intelligence noted a few weeks ago “Most eligible professionals are at serious risk of incurring Medicare penalties in 2015 if they don’t speed up their EHR adoption.” That statement came from Adam Wright, a Senior Scientist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, who goes on to say “Although these data suggest rapid growth in the number of providers achieving meaningful use, this pace must accelerate for most eligible professionals to avoid penalties in 2015.”
This all comes at a time when former President Bill Clinton is admonishing the health care industry to cut costs and become more transparent. Speaking Wednesday at HIMSS 2013, Clinton called for “embracing IT and letting go of outmoded administrative systems” as the lack of IT capability is keeping health care costs high and consumers ignorant. This is according to a story from Computerworld, which also quoted Clinton as saying "There is nothing wrong we can't fix.” But, Clinton added the health care industry must be willing to let go of "horse and buggy systems."
It’s not all bad news for EHR, however. A recent Information Week news posting notes that, according to the HIMSS annual CIO survey, “hospitals are doing very well on their journeys toward Meaningful Use of electronic health records and, eventually, safer and more cost-effective care.” The article points out “A remarkable 66% of the 298 healthcare CIOs surveyed online between December and February said their organizations had already qualified for Meaningful Use stage 1, and another 4% had expected to do so before the end of 2012.”