Why physicians love to hate EMRS.
Monday, February 22nd, 2010I have never heard a physician shout with glee, “yay, we’re getting an EMR!!!”
Physicians love to hate this latest technology, and for good reason. Here’s why we hate ‘em:
- EMRs are comlicated. When we had paper charts we wrote our notes on one side of the paper, and our orders on the other. Quite simple. If we had to read a note from a different doctor, we flipped through the pages. (Hopefuly it was legible.) We would open the tab to the lab results and look at them. (Now, don’t forget that half the time you couldn’t find the chart!!!)
- EMRs are not intuitive. EMR geeks have given us 10 different ways to do one thing. We are simple souls– we want one way to do one thing. We wrote our orders on the paper and handed them to the ward clerk. We don’t care about 7 different ways to order a lab test or medication, we just want to get it done.
- EMRs make us learn a whole new skill set. We now have to “navigate”, and “cut and paste”, and use “smart phrases.” We also have to know how to type. This wasn’t part of our medical education, and we perceive it to take time away from what we need to do–take care of patients.
- EMRs make us feel like clerks. When my hospital went to order entry, the clerks vanished. ‘Nuff said.
- EMRs don’t mimic our work flow. When I work on paper, I take my note out, and have labs and other notes open on the table in front of me, so I can synthesize data and come up with a coherent plan. EMRs make it difficult to mimic this work flow.
- EMRs don’t talk to each other. There are a kazillion different EMRs out there that hospitals, offices and clinics are adopting. Those of us that work at multiple different settings have to learn multiple different EMRs.
- EMR bulders forget that the EMR is a tool, not the end product!!! The end product is patient care. The tool should be used to enhance and deliver improved patient care.
You would think that I am a part of the anti-EMR faction. Well, I’m not. I’m a pragmatist. EMRs are here to stay. Make the best of it. Be an influencer in a positve light–get involved to make EMRs better at your institution!