A Comparison of the User Experiences of Primary Care Electronic Health Record Systems

Abstract

Digital health records play an important role for the information flow in primary care organizations that carry out services at patient’s home. Mobile digital solutions have improved the access to up-dated care information at the patient’s home, facilitating new ways for clinical workflow and care delivery. This paper presents a study comparing the user experiences of two electronic health record systems in two primary care organizations in Norway. Qualitative research methods were applied with interviews and observations made between 2017 and 2019 where clinical end-users of primary care electronic health records participated. The study showed that the systems had an important function for the daily operations, both from a care and administrative perspective, and that the introduction of mobile devices had changed how individual digital care plans were used in the clinical work process, even though there were issues that could be improved.