Fishing for EHR Information?
FPM's EHR User Satisfaction Survey Can Help
By Sheri Porter
Editor's Note: Since this article was published, Family Practice Management has revised its study to eliminate two of the original 22 systems that were included in its report. According to FPM, the survey instrument design led an unknown number of users of Misys EMR to indicate that they used Misys MyWay, which is now Allscripts MyWay. Data for these two system have been omitted from the corrected results reported by FPM.
The plethora of electronic health record, or EHR, products on the market today may be daunting for purchasers, but an updated user satisfaction survey from Family Practice Management could help scale down the choices.
FPM's 2009 EHR User Satisfaction Survey, which appears in the journal's November/December issue, is based on responses from 2,012 family physicians who shared their personal EHR experiences.
FPM also surveyed EHR users in 2005 and 2007, but, as FPM Editor-in-Chief Robert Edsall told AAFP News Now, health information technology is a rapidly changing industry that requires close monitoring -- particularly because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes financial incentives for physicians to purchase EHR systems.
"With all of the talk about federal incentives for EHRs and with the growing number of family physicians who are thinking about moving to EHRs, it was important to repeat the survey," said Edsall.
But Edsall and co-author Kenneth Adler, M.D., of Tucson, Ariz., are reluctant to pick out "clear winners" from the survey results.
"There's no one 'best' EHR system for all practices," said Edsall. "But the results of this survey can give family physicians a good start on identifying the relatively small number of systems that they may need to look at for their practices."
The authors focused their report on 22 EHR systems out of a total of 142 systems identified by survey respondents. The pair asked participants to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with 13 statements ranging from their systems' overall ease of use to statements about a variety of specific functions, such as e-prescribing.
User feedback is illustrated by color-coded response spectrum charts that show how user responses to the 22 EHR systems compare. The authors embedded some of the charts into the survey report, and all of them are included in a separate online appendix (14-page PDF; About PDFs).
Adler and Edsall noted that the survey indicates that physicians tend to pay close attention to four areas when comparing EHRs:
FPM also surveyed EHR users in 2005 and 2007, but, as FPM Editor-in-Chief Robert Edsall told AAFP News Now, health information technology is a rapidly changing industry that requires close monitoring -- particularly because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes financial incentives for physicians to purchase EHR systems.
"With all of the talk about federal incentives for EHRs and with the growing number of family physicians who are thinking about moving to EHRs, it was important to repeat the survey," said Edsall.
But Edsall and co-author Kenneth Adler, M.D., of Tucson, Ariz., are reluctant to pick out "clear winners" from the survey results.
"There's no one 'best' EHR system for all practices," said Edsall. "But the results of this survey can give family physicians a good start on identifying the relatively small number of systems that they may need to look at for their practices."
The authors focused their report on 22 EHR systems out of a total of 142 systems identified by survey respondents. The pair asked participants to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with 13 statements ranging from their systems' overall ease of use to statements about a variety of specific functions, such as e-prescribing.
User feedback is illustrated by color-coded response spectrum charts that show how user responses to the 22 EHR systems compare. The authors embedded some of the charts into the survey report, and all of them are included in a separate online appendix (14-page PDF; About PDFs).
Adler and Edsall noted that the survey indicates that physicians tend to pay close attention to four areas when comparing EHRs:
- vendor support,
- contribution to quality of care,
- value for investment and
- overall product satisfaction.
Adler said that his practice implemented an EHR back in 2004, and he remembers the dearth of product selection information back then. But times have changed. "Now, there's actually too much information," he said. It's hard for physicians to discern the facts from the hype, and that makes peer reviews of EHR systems especially valuable, he noted.
However, "This is one piece of the puzzle," Adler cautioned, and certainly not the endgame when it comes to EHR selection.
He encouraged physicians to visit other practices that are using the software in which they are interested. An up-close look at a system's functionality can help physicians make the right choice, he said.
However, "This is one piece of the puzzle," Adler cautioned, and certainly not the endgame when it comes to EHR selection.
He encouraged physicians to visit other practices that are using the software in which they are interested. An up-close look at a system's functionality can help physicians make the right choice, he said.
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More From AAFP
Family Practice Management: "User Satisfaction With EHRs: Report of a Survey of 422 Family Physicians"
(February 2008)
Center for Health IT: Your EHR Guide
Stimulus Money Tapped to Spur EHR Growth
$1.2 Billion Slated for HITECH Priority Grant Programs
(8/26/2009)
Do You Qualify for a $63,750 Medicaid EHR Bonus?
Funding Comes Courtesy of Federal Stimulus Package
(8/10/2009)
National Survey
Low Physician EHR Adoption Rates a Concern
(6/25/2008)
More From AAFP
Family Practice Management: "User Satisfaction With EHRs: Report of a Survey of 422 Family Physicians"
(February 2008)
Center for Health IT: Your EHR Guide
