Abstract
BackgroundIn spite of succesful adoption of electronic patient records (EPR) by Norwegian GPs, what constitutes the actual benefits and effects of the use of EPRs in the perspective of the GPs and patients has not been fully characterized. We wanted to study primary care physicians' use of electronic patient record (EPR) systems in terms of use of different EPR functions and the time spent on using the records, as well as the potential effects of EPR systems on the clinician-patient relationship.MethodsA combined qualitative and quantitative study that uses data collected from focus groups, observations of primary care encounters and a questionnaire survey of a random sample of general practitioners to describe their use of EPR in primary care.ResultsThe overall availability of individual patient records had improved, but the availability of the information within each EPR was not satisfactory. GPs' use of EPRs were efficient and comprehensive, but have resulted in transfer of administrative work from secretaries to physicians. We found no indications of disturbance of the clinician-patient relationship by use of computers in this study.ConclusionAlthough GPs are generally satisfied with their EPRs systems, there are still unmet needs and functionality to be covered. It is urgent to find methods that can make a better representation of information in large patient records as well as prevent EPRs from contributing to increased administrative workload of physicians.
Highlights
In spite of succesful adoption of electronic patient records (EPR) by Norwegian GPs, what constitutes the actual benefits and effects of the use of EPRs in the perspective of the GPs and patients has not been fully characterized
Of the 338 GPs who received an invitation, 247 (73%) completed the questionnaire; 18 of the respondents were excluded because they used an older version of the system, used other systems, or EPR system data were missing
Use of different EPR sections was studied in 53 of the encounters; by this time we were getting results that were very similar to those seen in earlier encounters and we did not consider it necessary to study the use of the different EPR sections in more encounters
Summary
In spite of succesful adoption of electronic patient records (EPR) by Norwegian GPs, what constitutes the actual benefits and effects of the use of EPRs in the perspective of the GPs and patients has not been fully characterized. Norwegian GPs started to move their clinical documentation work from paper to EPR systems in the beginning of the 1980's. In the last decade more than 95% of Norwegian GPs have been using an EPR system (personal communication). The high uptake of EPR systems may be looked upon as a proof of their value, but what constitutes the actual benefits and effects of the use of EPRs for GPs and patients have not been fully characterized. Other benefits are flexible visualization of (page number not for citation purposes)
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