Electronic Health Records: Physician Related Barriers to the Adoption - Essay Example

Electronic Health Records Electronic Health Records: Physician Related Barriers to the Adoption Introduction Medical field has faced great challenges in collecting, storing and displaying information that is patient related to improving records keeping. There have been tremendous efforts to trying to come up with the electronic means through which such patient information can be collected, stored and displayed. Such efforts have come up with the Electronic Health Records, which include those computerized systems of medical information that are meant to collect, store and display patient health information. Such a computerized system is said to have a potential of improving and revolutionizing the health sector. However, the quality of its adoption by the physicians has since remained very low as reiterated by Yan, Gardner, Rebekah and Baier (2012). Several barrier types have been identified to explain the delay in adoption of the Electronic Health Records by the physicians. Among these barriers are those that are system related, health care center related and those that are physician related. In this analysis, we will concentrate much on the physician-related barriers that have made the adoption of the Electronic Health Records slow. Physician Related Barriers Workflow Disruption According to Sima and Tayyebe (2013), in their research on "Barriers for Adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by Physicians," theres a high tendency of physicians not taking their time to familiarize themselves with the new products available to enable them select the best EMR that can work for best for them, even though, their colleagues have registered high benefits for the same. They, for this reason, do not have time to attain required training to use such products. It is reported that when physicians need to use the Electronic Health Records system to listen to the complaints raised by patients, assess the relevant medical remedy to provide and contemplate on what intervention to provide as well as take notes through typing, a lot of skills are required that require tolerance and adequate training to familiarize them with the systems. Access to Computer and Computer Literacy Most hospitals have inadequate resources. Computers can, for this reason, be few in some healthcare provision centers that makes it hard for the physicians to practice and improve their proficiency in using the electronic health records system. It, for this reason, follows that, given the inadequacy of the computers, many physicians who are considered to have lots of experiences, especially the long-serving ones, are considered computer illiterate. They, for this reason, make it easy for the adoption rate of this system in hospitals to take place at a very slow rate. Such physicians who were trained long time ago, are considered to have a lot of experience in administering medical services, but with less technological advancement. As a result, it is hard to train such physicians on Electronic Health Records without any or with little knowledge of computers that they have. Expert Support Physicians also suffer from lack of adequate expert support. There are not enough physicians who are experts in the usage of the electronic health records system to train other physicians on the same. Most of the expert who can be found would be those who have the knowledge in Information Technology, but do not specialize in the medical field. Such technical experts can only help the physicians with the general knowledge on IT but not on how health records should be collected, stored and displayed in accordance with the medical requirements. When physicians with the knowledge on how to use electronic health records system are few, it means the adoption rate of this system will also be derailed to a greater extent. Time Physicians are considered very busy people in their profession. In some countries, physicians do not even have the time to go for holidays or leaves as expected due to their shortage. They also need to work both day and night, though in shifts, to ensure that they rescue as many lives as possible. With this tight schedule that they have, physicians rarely have enough time even for their family members. It only means that they will not have that time to go back to training and train in a way that they familiarize themselves with the products available and chose which ones work best for them. It, for this reason, follows that, when they go back for training, they may come back having not familiarized themselves well enough with the products, hence, will not be able to use them competently. Training and after sail experiences with their vendor Most vendors provide training on how to use their products. However, on most occasions, the literature used during training does not comply with the product that one is expected to use. The training is usually offered in half to a full day duration that is not commensurate with the volume of literature that they need to cover during this particular period. They were then required to implement the training knowledge soon after training, and considering how short and shallow it was, most of the time the physicians face difficulties in implementation. The technical support from the vendor is also very limited in most case. This makes it hard for the adoption of this electronic health record system as many physicians fear using it during inadequate training and poor vendor-physician relationship. Impact of these Barriers to Healthcare Industry Considering all the benefits that come along with the adoption of the electronic health records system, healthcare is considered affected to a greater with these barriers to adoption. According to Eric, Vaishali, Michael and Jenifer (2014) on "HER adopters vs. non-adopters: Impacts of, barriers to, and federal initiatives for HER adoptions," a large number of physicians in their research had agreed that the use of Electronic Health Records system had lots of positive impacts on clinical care, finances, and practice efficiencies. It, for this reason, means that, due to these barriers, such positive effects cannot be realized with clinical care, finances, and practice efficiencies. Using Electronic Health Records system has also been found to make clinical records readily available at the point of care by 91% by those physicians who had adopted it. It was also significant to note that many adopters agreed that through the use of Electronic Health Record system, they were able to provide better care to the patients by 71% (Eric, Vaishali, Michael, & Jennifer, 2014). Through the use or e-prescribing, there is much time for the physician that is saved. For this reason, the electronic health records system is also considered as a time saver. Such are some of the benefits that the barriers to adoption of this technique makes difficult for the health cares to receive. With these barriers in place, it, for this reason, means that clinical records of the patients will not be readily available. Hence the efficiency in service delivery will be reduced. On the other hand, patient care will also reduce without the electronic system since its presence increases the patients care by 71%. There will also be a lot of time wastage by the physician while carrying out things manually such as manual prescription. Laboratory results are most likely to be sent faster with the electronic health records system. It, for this reason, means that these barriers will make these results to take a lot of time to be sent. As a result, there will be a reduction in the efficiency of service provision in the health care. The barriers also make the health care centers use a lot of money on papers used to keep records manually. This could have been saved with the adoption of the electronic health records system. There is also less data confidentiality enhanced with the barriers in place that make it hard for the adoption of the electronic health record system. Possible Approaches to Address the Barriers Many of the barriers mainly dwell around time, resources and training. For this reason, various approaches that need to be put I place to deal with such barriers can be consolidated in a simpler way. Looking at the approaches, for instance, those that can address access to computer and computer illiteracy, it is advisable that hospitals receive adequate funding to enable them purchase adequate computers. Alternatively, health care centers can also devise some ways of coming up with extra revenues to help them purchase enough computers (Grinspan, Banerjee, Kaushal, & Kem, 2013). To address the computer illiteracy problem, the physicians professional training should be made to cover computer training classes to raise their literacy level in computers. Many young health record experts should also be employed together with the more experienced physicians to help them train each other. With health care centers equipped with adequate computers, finding the electronic health record experts to train other physicians at the center would be made very easy. Conclusion Electronic Health Records has been proved to provide a lot of positive impacts on health care keeping and maintaining of records. On the other hand, the adoption of the electronic health record has been mad slow through physician triggered barriers. Such barriers that include time, computer illiteracy, access to computers, training, and others, and may make it hard for the physicians to quickly adopt the new system that is considered more sophisticated and technology involved. All the positive impacts that are perceived to be expected from the electronic health record system are then not realized because of the adoption barriers. When the barriers are dealt with in the correct way, services will be greatly improved at the health care provision centers. References Eric, W. J., Vaishali, P., Michael, F. F., & Jennifer, K. (2014). EHR adopters vs. non-adopters: Impacts of, barriers to, and federal initiatives for EHR adoption. Healthcare, 2, 33-39. Grinspan, Z., Banerjee, S., Kaushal, R., & Kem, L. (2013). Physician specialty and variations in adoption in electronic health records. Schattauer, 225-240. Sima, A., & Tayyebe, B.-T. (2013, jUNE). Barriers for Adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by Physicians. ACTA INFORM MED., 21(2), 129-134. Yan, H., Garner, R., & Baier, R. (2012, April). Beyond the Focus Group: Understanding physicians bariers to electronic medical records. Joint Commision Journal on Quality and Patient, 38(8), 184-191. Retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jcaho/jcjqs/2012/00000038/00000004/art00006?token=00501688f18dea7b76504c48666725703a2b465f6c63592c6a332b25757d5c4f6d4e227adaeba7b7 Read More