Long time readers of the blog know of both my love of information technology and my skepticism that they’re going to be widely accepted (and bring down costs) in the near future. There’s a new report out of the AMA news that supports my beliefs:
The meaningful use incentive program has resulted in more physicians implementing electronic health record systems and using them in advanced ways. Yet doctors’ dissatisfaction with the systems has increased.
Theories for what is driving the dissatisfaction include rushed implementations, too little training and physicians doing too much too soon as they struggle to meet meaningful use requirements, other federal mandates and changes to the health care landscape. EHR vendors also are thought to be taking on too much in too little time. As they rush to deliver products certified for meaningful use, usability may have suffered.
Some data? AmericanEHR partners did a survey of more than 4200 providers, and found that satisfaction with EHRs dropped from 39% to 27% from 2010 to 2012. At the same time, the percentage of them who were “very dissatisfied” nearly doubled. Here are some more details:
Opinion 2010 2011 2012 Would not recommend their EHR to colleague 24% 32% 39% Would not purchase their EHR again 25% 30% 38% Very dissatisfied with ability to decrease workload 19% 25% 34% Dissatisfied with EHR features and functionalities 20% 27% 32% Dissatisfaction with ease of use 23% 32% 37% Very dissatisfied with ability to improve patient care 10% 14% 20% Very dissatisfied overall with EHR 11% 15% 21%
So while more and more physicians are adopting (or being forced to do so), they’re becoming more and more dissatisfied with them. I’ve discussed why this is so in the past. Just mandating docs use them is not going to work.
