Physician Satisfaction with EHR

As per a study, the more time a physician spends seeing and communicating with a patient, the more satisfied the patient is with the quality of care. A physician's time is often busy with many other things in today's healthcare environment. The most significant one is, arguably, electronic health record (EHR) systems and EHR satisfaction.

Using EHRs in hospitals and clinics will allow healthcare providers to deliver higher quality patient care. To some extent, that's true based on current research. Quality of care and organizational efficiency has improved as well as user satisfaction with the EHR. Physicians have acknowledged these challenges, but EHR has also brought its own set of issues. Moreover, physicians say these challenges are time-consuming and limit their ability to satisfy patients, which in turn lowers their EHR satisfaction.

Let's Understand the relationship between EHR (Electronic Health Records) and Physicians.

Many front-line physicians will tell you that they have a love-hate relationship with the EHR, according to a poll. They don't want to fully abandon technology and return to the days of paper, but the way it has affected their processes has enhanced productivity while also causing a dramatic shift in the care paradigm.

A recent survey by NCBI found that physician satisfaction with EHRs and their perception of their impact on clinical care were generally positive. But some other factors are associated with physicians like age, clinical role, and attending level that affects the physician's satisfaction.

Another study from Stanford Medicine reveals that more than 66% of physicians are satisfied with EHRs. Some other facts from the same study:

The relationship between physician use of EHR and patient satisfaction is poorly understood despite the concurrent deployment of patient satisfaction surveys and EHRs. Previous research on the impact of the EHR on physician-patient communication has been observational, describing the behaviors of physicians and patients when they access the EHR in the exam room. Clinical encounters, during which physicians access the EHR, are often marked by long pauses, with few clinicians sharing what they are viewing.

Strategies for Improving Physician Satisfaction with EHR

So, what can healthcare organizations do to boost physician satisfaction and reduce EHR-related burnout? According to research, the five best strategies that can have the most impact are:

How does EHR improve Physicians' Satisfaction?

Summary

Whether it is burnout in physicians or management time is taken away from patients to manage EHRs, these low EHR satisfaction issues pose a risk to the effectiveness of hospitals and clinics in treating their patients. Optimal EHR implementation will take years, at least. However, one should listen to what physicians have to say about the problem (and solution). Deloitte published a study in 2018 indicating that 62% of physicians want more interoperability between EHR platforms and easier ways of updating patient records. The healthcare industry doesn't control interoperability, but the EHR industry does. Efforts are being made in that direction, but hospitals and clinics must focus on domains they can control, such as implementation, maintenance, and training.

In the past, primary care providers operated inefficiently because of the manual processing involved in clinical, financial, and administrative tasks. Physicians are happier and satisfied when patients' needs are fulfilled by delivering high-quality care. EHR features and tools help to automate and streamline the daily clinical, administrative, and financial tasks which let care providers see more patients and provide better care. Primary care providers are the pillar of the healthcare system and are often overburdened so good EHR software should be easy to use, automatic, and reliable facilitating seamless communication between physicians involved in the healthcare system.