Technological advancement has played a vital role in improving the efficiency of the work process that once relied on human efforts. The adoption of technology is evidenced in almost every industry. One sector that is ripping the benefits of technological advancement is the health industry following the implementation and adoption of electronic health records. Electronic health records have revolutionized the means through which patient information is collected, stored and shared. Additionally, the EHRs have improved the prescription of medication, communication between healthcare professionals and improved overall patient satisfaction rates. Nonetheless, despite these numerous advantages, the EHRs has been marred by controversies some physicians cite it is inconvenient. The physicians are mentioning that the EHRs is time-consuming
Research Question
It is evident that the introduction of EHRs in the healthcare sector has elicited some mixed reactions from healthcare professionals. The mixed responses have seen the physicians being divided with one side acknowledging the EHRs advantages within the healthcare sector and another party not supporting the technology. As a result of this, the research question for this study is as follows;
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What is the view of medical teams concerning the use of EHR in hospitals?
Additionally, the research will focus on a null hypothesis;
The majority of the medical staffs are not satisfied with the use of EHR in the healthcare system.
Literature Review
According to Heath and Porter (2018), the adoption of EHRs in hospitals has faced tremendous setbacks. The researchers found out that the negative reactions by the physicians towards the technology gave contributed significantly towards successful implementation of EHRs. The physicians have cited that EHRs affect the normal flow of work within the facilities. Additionally, according to a study conducted by Khairat et al . (2018), they found that physicians located in emergency departments feel frustrated following the introduction of EHRs. The physicians cited that the EHRs has negative impacts on their productivity, workload and satisfaction rates. A similar study by Hossain et al. (2019) found out that various factors contribute towards the negative attitudes. Physicians have towards EHRs. The major contributing factors according to the study is human factors
Research Design
The following research will employ four types of research designs, which include casual-comparative design, experiment design, descriptive design, and correlation design. According to Creswell and Creswell (2017), a correlational research design will help in examining the relationship between various variables of the study. This will be made possible through naturalistic observation of the research variable form their natural environment. A descriptive research design will be used in the explanation of the various variables in the study. An experimental research design will help in ascertaining the cause and effect affiliation between multiple variables. In this type of design , the dependent variables are controlled , and the independent variable is kept constant.
Data Collection
A random sampling technique will be used in selecting the study’s participants. The significant advantages of using this type of sampling technique are that it provides anyone from the entire population of a study an equal chance to become part of the study. Therefore random sampling helps in eliminating any form of biases. The study will employ a sample of 50 physicians from nearby healthcare facilities. This choice of participant number is essential in determining the validity a nd reliability of the data gathered as it will offer results bearing a higher degree of confidence. The 50 participants will be divided form both the private and public sector to ensure that the feedback provided represents the actual healthcare industry.
The primary data collection tool will be a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a data collection tool that has a set of questions. A questionnaire can be administered orally or in written form. According to Krosncik (2018), the main advantages of using a questionnaire is that it does not only help one in gathering feedback from respondents but offers other prompts that can help to collect additional information. The main advantages of questionnaires are that they are cheap. In the case of online and mobile surveys, they can help save the costs that would have been used in printing questionnaires on hardcopy materials. The respondents will use the online surveys as they have access to mobile phones, computers, and laptops that they can connect via WI-FI. The questionnaire will also employ open-ended questions
Additionally, an interview will be used in gathering data from physicians ’. This was enabled by engaging an informal conversation observational strategy. Through this method, the researcher could have a discussion with the doctors in regards to their reaction while using electronic health records
According to the informal discussion between the researcher and the physicians, the physicians felt that the entire electronic health record system requires a complete overhaul. They thought that the software had minimal benefits as compared to the challenges. Out of the three physicians involved in the interview, only one thought that the EHRs was beneficial and the other two felt that the software was unsatisfying. However, the three later agreed that EHRs was affecting their effectiveness and personal satisfaction on in clinically related matters .
Additionally , the respondents stated that the electronic health records brought about an increased work hour leading to burnout. EHRs also detracts effective communication between the patient and the physician. The physicians are forced to focus on the computers more than facing the patients thus eliminating eye contact that is vital for the profession. The EHRs software is also limiting the interaction take between the physician a nd patients. On average, the physician cited taking about 20 minutes, and out of this, more than ten are spent focusing on the EHRs system. From the findings, it indicates that the EHRs brings about negative attitudes in physicians.
Additionally, form the results, it shows that there are two types of EHRs systems; basic and certified. In the case of a certified system, it offers limited capabilities in improving efficacy, unlike basic EHRs. According to sample of 15 taken from the entire USA states to show the adoption of basic or certified EHRs the F-value obtained is 54.77 while F-critical is 4.195. This is an indication that the adoption of the two EHRs systems is not the same throughout the USA. There is a massive difference in the uptake of basic or certified EHRs, and this is mainly attributed to the physician attitude towards the two systems.
Conclusion
According to the research, it is an indication that physicians have negative attitudes when it comes to adoption of EHRs in the USA by physicians and this proves my hypothesis. The primary factors that inhibit the adoption of EHRs software in the USA are because of human factors. This is similar to a study conducted by Hossain et al. (2019). The physicians cited that the EHRs hurts the effectiveness and ability to adequately meet patient needs. When using the system, the physician is forced topoi spend about 10 minutes out of the total 20 minutes during patient consultation the system. This hurts communication, which is vital for building patient-doctor relationships .
Nonetheless , this is in contradiction to White and Danis (2013) who state that EHRs software helps in the effective connection of patients and physicians and easing the service delivery process. The significant limitations while conducting the study is that some of the respondents might not give truthful answers as their judgment might become affected by their patient’s conditions. This might make the respondents exaggerate or lie during the study. Because of this, there a need for conducting more studies on the issue by including the patients to determine the effectiveness of the EHRs system.
References
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach . Sage publications.
Heath, M., & Porter, T. H. (2018). Change management overlooked physician perspectives on EHR implementation. American Journal of Business
Hossain, A., Quaresma, R., & Rahman, H. (2019). Investigating factors influencing the physicians' adoption of electronic health record (EHR) in the healthcare system of Bangladesh: nm.nAn empirical study. International Journal of Information Management , 44 , 76-87.
Khairat, S., Burke, G., Archambault, H., Schwartz, T., Larson, J., & Ratwani, R. M. (2018). Perceived Burden of EHRs on Physicians at Different Stages of Their Career. Applied clinical informatics , 9 (02), 336-347.
Krosnick, J. A. (2018). Questionnaire design. In The Palgrave Handbook of Survey Research (pp. 439-455). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
White, A., & Danis, M. (2013). Enhancing patient-centered communication and collaboration by using the electronic health record in the examination room. Jama, 309(22), 2327-2328.
