How Do Users of Modern EHR Perceive the Usability, User Resistance and Productivity Five Years or More After Implementation?

Abstract

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) has been a principal component in transforming healthcare from traditional pen-and-paper documentation procedures to highly digitalized and interoperable environments. Implementation of EHR is complicated, and success is dependent on the users accepting and utilizing the system to its potential. The present qualitative multi-center study investigated health professionals perceived system usability, user resistance and productivity five to eight years after implementation of a modern EHR, across three European cites. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews with experienced health professionals that had work experience before and after implementation of the EHR. Overall, the respondents considered their EHR to have good usability, reported a low degree of user resistance, and were ambiguous on how the EHR affected their perceived workload at the present, but retrospectively reported that the road towards the present state of satisfaction was not without hurdles.