Some EMRs not designed for ease of use

Patient Safety Monitor Alert

April 14, 2010

A 2009 study in the Journal of American Medicine found that hospitals that had more advanced electronic medical records (EMR) did not save on administrative costs, reports The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, many users say that they are frustrated with EMR design changes that force changes in practice.

One common complaint among physicians who have switched to EMRs is that the EMR systems are not intuitive or easy to use, at first, and sometimes do not produce the same results as quickly as the paper records did. Physicians are often not involved in the design of the EMR interface which creates for a poorly designed interface that does not consider the end user.