Usability issues with electronic health records: Is it even worth it for human factors practitioners?

Abstract

Despite the need for addressing usability issues within Electronic Health Records (EHR), health care organizations have struggled to systemically involve human factors practitioners (HFP). There are several challenges to supporting EHR-related work as HFP. Simple design changes may have dependencies or create downstream consequences that are not typical of other software systems, or not be feasible to change without overhaul of functionality from the EHR vendor. This panel will present successes and lessons learned by a group of HFP embedded in healthcare systems who have extended experience working on EHR configuration and design changes. They will discuss challenges and strategies in a dopting human factors techniques to improve EHR design and related outcomes. By the end of the panel, audience members will learn not only how human factors is having an impact in this aspect of healthcare delivery, but also learn approaches that may be applicable to other complex technical systems.