TY - JOUR
T1 - A qualitative study of physician perspectives on adaptation to electronic health records
AU - Sieck, Cynthia J.
AU - Pearl, Nicole
AU - Bright, Tiffani J.
AU - Yen, Po Yin
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R21HS024767).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s).
PY - 2020/2/10
Y1 - 2020/2/10
N2 - Background: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have the potential to improve many aspects of care and their use has increased in the last decade. Because of this, acceptance and adoption of EHRs is less of a concern than adaptation to use. To understand this issue more deeply, we conducted a qualitative study of physician perspectives on EHR use to identify factors that facilitate adaptation. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 physicians across a range of inpatient disciplines at a large Academic Medical Center. Interviews were conducted by phone, lasting approximately 30 min, and were transcribed verbatim for analysis. We utilized inductive and deductive methods in our analysis. Results: We identified 4 major themes related to EHR adaptation: impact of EHR changes on physicians, how physicians managed these changes, factors that facilitated adaptation to using the EHR and adapting to using the EHR in the patient encounter. Within these themes, physicians felt that a positive mindset toward change, providing upgrade training that was tailored to their role, and the opportunity to learn from colleagues were important facilitators of adaptation. Conclusions: As EHR use moves beyond implementation, physicians continue to be required to adapt to the technology and to its frequent changes. Our study provides actionable findings that allow healthcare systems to focus on factors that facilitate the adaptation process for physicians.
AB - Background: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have the potential to improve many aspects of care and their use has increased in the last decade. Because of this, acceptance and adoption of EHRs is less of a concern than adaptation to use. To understand this issue more deeply, we conducted a qualitative study of physician perspectives on EHR use to identify factors that facilitate adaptation. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 physicians across a range of inpatient disciplines at a large Academic Medical Center. Interviews were conducted by phone, lasting approximately 30 min, and were transcribed verbatim for analysis. We utilized inductive and deductive methods in our analysis. Results: We identified 4 major themes related to EHR adaptation: impact of EHR changes on physicians, how physicians managed these changes, factors that facilitated adaptation to using the EHR and adapting to using the EHR in the patient encounter. Within these themes, physicians felt that a positive mindset toward change, providing upgrade training that was tailored to their role, and the opportunity to learn from colleagues were important facilitators of adaptation. Conclusions: As EHR use moves beyond implementation, physicians continue to be required to adapt to the technology and to its frequent changes. Our study provides actionable findings that allow healthcare systems to focus on factors that facilitate the adaptation process for physicians.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Electronic health records
KW - Health information technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079109579&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12911-020-1030-6
DO - 10.1186/s12911-020-1030-6
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32039728
AN - SCOPUS:85079109579
SN - 1472-6947
VL - 20
JO - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
JF - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
IS - 1
M1 - 25
ER -