Survey: MDs find EHRs promising and frustrating

EHR adoption has been steadily increasing over the past few years but physicians see the systems as a source of both promise and frustration, according to a report from RAND Health.

Physicians see EHRs as good in concept but feel that they "significantly worsened" their professional satisfaction, according to the report.

Conducted at the request of the American Medical Association, the report focused on determining the factors that lead to physician fulfillment. EHRs enable physicians to improve quality of care and remotely access medical information, but they also present the following frustrations:

• Time-consuming data entry that could be better accomplished by clerks and scribes;
• Difficult to use;
• Interferance with patient face-to-face interaction;
• Lack of interoperability; and
• Degradation of clinical documentation

The report recommends that "better EHR usability should be an industry priority and a precondition for EHR certification."