Increasingly, hospitals and other health care organizations are facing pressure to adopt electronic health records (EHR), but their successful use presents several challenges, notes the Baker Institute’s Health Policy Research newsletter, citing a commentary by Dean F. Sittig, Ph.D., and Hardeep Singh, M.D., M.P.H., in the September 9, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
For instance, an efficient and well-designed EHR hardware and software system is essential to protect patient safety and quality of care. A system with a poorly designed user interface, for example, could put too much information on one screen and increase the likelihood that a clinician would miss important data.
Another roadblock to safe EHR use is the availability of qualified and well-trained personnel, including software developers, trainers, implementers and maintenance staff with specialized knowledge and skills in clinical informatics.
Finally, policies and regulations at the state and federal level should continually evaluate the use of EHRs. In order to have optimal EHR use, there must be a coordinated effort between scientists, engineers and clinicians to fully comprehend the issues associated with their implementation.
To read more about the challenges of safe EHR use, download the December 2009 Health Policy Research newsletter, “Is safe electronic health record use all about good technology?”