Physicians Concerns About EHRs

Not so long ago, hospital leadership viewed physicians’ resistance to newly installed electronic health records systems as simply refusing to accept new technology. They predicted all the uproar would fade away. Physicians’ complaints, however, aren’t going away. They’re only getting more intense. Health leaders now acknowledge that physicianswere right all along. The fact is that most EHR user interfaces are not intuitive. They do not follow physicians’ normal workflows or thought processes. In a 2011 report on EHRs, the Institute of Medicine pointed to “poor interface design that detracts from clinician efficiency and affinity for the system,” and noted that these problems “will likely leadto underuse or misuse of the system.