Wednesday, October 16, 2013

How Happy is Your Physician?

A recent article in HeathData Management reported that EHRs have a big influence on physician satisfaction.  As quoted, "Physicians believing they provide or facilitate high-quality care have higher professional satisfaction and how they feel about their electronic health records system plays a big role in that satisfaction."

RAND Corporation did a study of 220 clinicians and administrators in 30 practices across 6 states.  They reported that physicians approved the concept of electronic health record systems especially when it comes to remotely accessing patient information and seeing improvements in the quality of care.  

However not all physicians agreed.  Some stated that "Poor EHR usability, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, inefficient and less fulfilling work content, inability to exchange health information between EHR products, and degradation of clinical documentation were prominent sources of professional dissatisfaction.”

So how happy is your physician?  Is he or she able to spend time talking with you like they want, or is their head buried in a paper chart or computer?  Are they furiously clicking away on a keyboard with a scowl on their face because they know all this work will only churn out irrelevant information that they'll need to fix later - most likely on their own time?  Are there still mounds of paperwork that have to be sent to other offices or medical facilities, when it should be as easy as pushing a button?

Maybe take a closer look the next time you go in for a visit.  Ask them "how happy are you?" and see what they say.  You might be surprised!  Oh, and if they aren't happy, mention us here at Inforia.  We have a simple solution that might be exactly what they need ... after all, it might give them more time to spend with you!

HealthData Management article written by Joseph Goedert, OCT 14, 2013 4:10pm ET

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