Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage
<p><strong>Background</strong> Although the presence of an electronic health record (EHR) alone does not ensure high quality, efficient care, few studies have focused on the work of those charged with optimising use of existing EHR functionality.</p><p><strong>Obj...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
2014-07-01
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| Series: | Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hijournal.bcs.org/index.php/jhi/article/view/57 |
| _version_ | 1819209251330981888 |
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| author | Nancy Pandhi Wan-Lin Yang Zaher Karp Alexander Young John W. Beasley Sally Kraft Pascale Carayon |
| author_facet | Nancy Pandhi Wan-Lin Yang Zaher Karp Alexander Young John W. Beasley Sally Kraft Pascale Carayon |
| author_sort | Nancy Pandhi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p><strong>Background</strong> Although the presence of an electronic health record (EHR) alone does not ensure high quality, efficient care, few studies have focused on the work of those charged with optimising use of existing EHR functionality.</p><p><strong>Objective</strong> To examine the approaches used and challenges perceived by analysts supporting the optimisation of primary care teams’ EHR use at a large U.S. academic health care system.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong> A qualitative study was conducted. Optimisation analysts and their supervisor were interviewed and data were analysed for themes.</p><p><strong>Results</strong> Analysts needed to reconcile the tension created by organisational mandates focused on the standardisation of EHR processes with the primary care teams’ demand for EHR customisation. They gained an understanding of health information technology (HIT) leadership’s and primary care team’s goals through attending meetings, reading meeting minutes and visiting with clinical teams. Within what was organisationally possible, EHR education could then be tailored to fit team needs. Major challenges were related to organisational attempts to standardise EHR use despite varied clinic contexts, personnel readiness and technical issues with the EHR platform. Forcing standardisation upon clinical needs that current EHR functionality could not satisfy was difficult.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong> Dedicated optimisation analysts can add value to health systems through playing a mediating role between HIT leadership and care teams. Our findings imply that EHR optimisation should be performed with an in-depth understanding of the workflow, cognitive and interactional activities in primary care.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:52:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6bb6e247e88f424387bb2af5c4241c9f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2058-4555 2058-4563 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:52:19Z |
| publishDate | 2014-07-01 |
| publisher | BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics |
| spelling | doaj.art-6bb6e247e88f424387bb2af5c4241c9f2022-12-21T17:57:55ZengBCS, The Chartered Institute for ITJournal of Innovation in Health Informatics2058-45552058-45632014-07-0121314215110.14236/jhi.v21i3.5765Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usageNancy Pandhi0Wan-Lin Yang1Zaher Karp2Alexander Young3John W. Beasley4Sally Kraft5Pascale Carayon6Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, 1100 Delaplaine Court, Madison, Wisconsin, 53715, USAAssistant Professor, National Cheng Kung University, Center of Teacher Education, 1 Ta-Hsueh Road Tainan City, Taiwan, ROC. Assistant Professor, National Cheng Kung University, Institute of Education, No. 1., University Road, Tainan City, Taiwan, ROC.Project Assistant, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, 1100 Delaplaine Court, Madison, Wisconsin, 53715, USA Project Assistant, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Population Health Sciences, 610 North Walnut Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53726, USAClinical Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, 1100 Delaplaine Court, Madison, Wisconsin, 53715, USAProfessor, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, 1100 Delaplaine Court, Madison, Wisconsin, 53715, USA Professor, University of Wisconsin, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USAClinical Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Medicine, 750 Highland Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin, 53705, USA Medical Director, Quality, Safety and Innovation, UW Health, 7974 UW Health Court, Middleton, Wisconsin, 53562, USAProfessor, University of Wisconsin, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA Professor, University of Wisconsin, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA<p><strong>Background</strong> Although the presence of an electronic health record (EHR) alone does not ensure high quality, efficient care, few studies have focused on the work of those charged with optimising use of existing EHR functionality.</p><p><strong>Objective</strong> To examine the approaches used and challenges perceived by analysts supporting the optimisation of primary care teams’ EHR use at a large U.S. academic health care system.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong> A qualitative study was conducted. Optimisation analysts and their supervisor were interviewed and data were analysed for themes.</p><p><strong>Results</strong> Analysts needed to reconcile the tension created by organisational mandates focused on the standardisation of EHR processes with the primary care teams’ demand for EHR customisation. They gained an understanding of health information technology (HIT) leadership’s and primary care team’s goals through attending meetings, reading meeting minutes and visiting with clinical teams. Within what was organisationally possible, EHR education could then be tailored to fit team needs. Major challenges were related to organisational attempts to standardise EHR use despite varied clinic contexts, personnel readiness and technical issues with the EHR platform. Forcing standardisation upon clinical needs that current EHR functionality could not satisfy was difficult.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong> Dedicated optimisation analysts can add value to health systems through playing a mediating role between HIT leadership and care teams. Our findings imply that EHR optimisation should be performed with an in-depth understanding of the workflow, cognitive and interactional activities in primary care.</p>http://hijournal.bcs.org/index.php/jhi/article/view/57computerised medical record systemsEHR acceptanceEHR optimisationelectronic health records/utilisationprimary care |
| spellingShingle | Nancy Pandhi Wan-Lin Yang Zaher Karp Alexander Young John W. Beasley Sally Kraft Pascale Carayon Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics computerised medical record systems EHR acceptance EHR optimisation electronic health records/utilisation primary care |
| title | Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage |
| title_full | Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage |
| title_fullStr | Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage |
| title_short | Approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams’ electronic health record usage |
| title_sort | approaches and challenges to optimising primary care teams electronic health record usage |
| topic | computerised medical record systems EHR acceptance EHR optimisation electronic health records/utilisation primary care |
| url | http://hijournal.bcs.org/index.php/jhi/article/view/57 |
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