Physicians Don’t Believe Electronic Health Records Are Improving Quality of Care
In spite of initial optimism that the utilization of electronic health records would improve the quality of healthcare by reducing errors, physicians who were recently surveyed now believe that the new technology has had little impact.
According to a Medscape article, “Kaveh Safavi, MD, head of Accenture’s global health business, told Medscape Medical News that, early in EHR adoption, there was more optimism that EHRs alone could drive quality improvement. But physicians have since recognized that the EHR is only a tool that can facilitate change in their practices. “Increasingly, people realize that the EHR must be optimized to make things happen,” he said.
As for the physicians’ complaint that they’re spending less time with patients, Dr Safavi said this affects their perception of patient encounters but has not changed how they view their medical decision-making ability. In other words, physicians don’t feel that they’re making poorer quality decisions due to their use of EHRs.”
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