58% of ambulatory providers surveyed were very dissatisfied, or neutral about their experience with ambulatory EHR, according to report by IDC Health Insights. The new report, Business Strategy: The Current State of Ambulatory EHR Buyer Satisfaction examines the results of an ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) satisfaction survey of 212 ambulatory and hospital-based providers conducted in September 2013 by MedData Group.
The report also outlines the issues that continue to affect EHR adopters, and the sentiment regarding opportunities for replacement and optimization among users. (Marketwatch 11/13)
The findings from the study identified seven key drivers of EHR dissatisfaction:
- Less productive resulting in seeing fewer patients
- Poor user experience making it difficult to use
- Takes longer than paper to write orders electronically, performing documentation, etc.
- EHR fails to provide streamlined workflow resulting in a cumbersome workflow
- Poor software quality due to EHRs not being the correct fit for the practice
- Form factor (design) that disrupts the doctor/patient relationship and poorly designed user interface (UI)
- Abundance of vendor service issues such as poor customer service, too expensive to purchase, implementation timelines & fees and maintenance costs
Additional findings from the study include:
— Providers that were satisfied with EHR cited the top reasons were a reduction in the number of lost or missing charts (82%), the ability to access medical records and work remotely (75%), and incentive payments (56%).
— The top 5 tasks physicians use EHR for include: accessing patient information, documenting care, ePrescribing, viewing labs and diagnostic tests results, and entering orders.
— The top 3 stated objectives for most providers implementing EHRs was the objective of improving the quality of care (43%). Other top objectives included improving efficiency and productivity (30%), supporting workflow (23%), and improving care team communication and collaboration (22%).
— Widespread EHR adoption in the ambulatory provider market from 2009 to 2013 was driven largely by regulatory change.
— More than half of the providers (56%) that implemented EHR in recent years were regulatory compliance and qualifying for meaningful use incentives (40%).
IDC Health Insights urges providers to optimize EHR and make sure that EHR use is a priority for their businesses, even after meaningful use incentive programs are completed. If EHR products do not meet requirements and optimization efforts are unsuccessful, replacement products should be considered by practices. According to the report, success and productivity with EHR will become even more important as EHR installations become the building blocks for care management, patient engagement, and patient-centered medical home operations under accountable care.
To learn more about the results of this survey, please visit: http://www.meddatagroup.com/idc-health-insights-november-webinar/.
