AmericanEHRPartners Surveys of Clinician Satisfaction with Health IT & EHR Solutions

AmericanEHR Partners is a free online resource designed to aid the medical community with the selection, implementation, and effective use of health information technology (HIT) and electronic health record (EHR) solutions. If you are in the market looking for an EHR system, you might really want to check out their web site and their survey results on the clinician satisfaction with EHR systems. Surprising many,  the 'open source' VistA system, originally developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the leader in EHR usability by a clear margin.

AmericanEHR Partners was founded by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and Cientis Technologies and is currently supported by 16 medical societies and five health IT organizations with a combined membership of more than 700,000 clinicians, representing over 65 percent of physicians in the U.S. It is key to note that they do not endorse any particular EHR vendor.

Earlier this year, the American College of Physicians and AmericanEHR Partners released the results of their survey of clinicians on their level of satisfaction with EHR systems and their usability. The findings were from 4,279 responses to multiple surveys developed and analyzed by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and AmericanEHR Partners between March 2010 and December 2012.

Some of the key findings from the surveys include:

• The percentage of clinicians who would NOT recommend their EHR to a colleague increased from 24 percent in 2010 to 39 percent in 2012.
• Clinicians who were “very satisfied” with the ability for their EHR to improve care dropped by 6 percent compared to 2010.
• Primary care physicians were more satisfied with EHRs than medical subspecialists.
• 34 percent of users were “very dissatisfied” with the ability of their EHR to decrease workload.
• Overall, satisfaction with EHR ease of use has dropped from 61 to 48 percent since 2010.

In taking a closer look at the data, in particular the Top 10 EHR Satisfaction Ratings vs. Meaningful Use (MU) Attestation Records, the following chart also shows the following:

• Surprising some, the 'open source' VistA system, originally developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the leader in EHR usability by a clear margin.
• Epic  is the clear leader in MU attestations  (55k) but has considerably less usability (index 3.45).

You can sign up for free and go online and generate your own graphs using the tools and  data AmericanEHRPartners have made available, e.g. http://www.americanehr.com/ehr-resources.aspx

The high ratings received by the VistA system may come as a surprise to many hospital administrators. However, Open Health News (OHN) has been reporting for quite some time on the widespread deployment and use of VistA in over 2000 healthcare facilities across the U.S. and around the world. In fact, just last week, we reported on the announcement by New York State that they have signed a contract to implement VistA in over 300 hospitals and clinics across that state.

The bottom line, the findings highlight the need for both the Meaningful Use (MU) program and EHR manufacturers to continue to focus their efforts on improving EHR features, capabilities, and usability. Again, you might want to go to the AmericanEHRPartners web site and check out their growing collection of reports and data they have made available on a wide range of Health IT and EHR solutions.