Clinician EHR struggles compromise patient care, study shows

Clinicians are struggling with unwieldy and complex third-party solutions within electronic health record systems, which is having a negative impact on patient care and leading to higher burnout risk, according to an Insiteflow study.

WHY IT MATTERS

The study, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Insiteflow (access it here), surveyed 250 clinicians and shed light on the myriad issues they encounter while attempting to integrate third-party solutions into their EHRs.

An overwhelming 94% of respondents expressed that the absence of user-friendly insights negatively affects patient care, resulting in several harmful consequences.

These include delayed treatment initiation (53%), prolonged hospital stays (52%) and incorrect treatment plans (47%).

Despite acknowledging the value of external insights – roughly three-quarters of clinicians said they have adjusted diagnosis or treatment plans based on third-party solutions – the primary challenge lies in the ease and speed with which these insights can be accessed and utilized.

More than eight in 10 respondents (82%) reported the difficulty in harnessing external opportunities for improvement within their EHRs.

Many clinicians resort to disparate methods, such as leaving their EHR and logging into separate sites, to access external sources of insights.

The consequences are sobering in their breadth and severity – 98% of clinicians admitted to missing opportunities for enhanced patient care, potentially saving lives and securing timely reimbursement.

More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) said the complexity of accessing and applying patient-specific insights from diverse external sources contributes to feelings of fatigue and burnout.

Clinicians, who often must contend with between six and 20 (or more) external solutions, cited various reasons for not capitalizing on these insights effectively. These reasons include the time-consuming nature of accessing them (43%), lack of user-friendliness (39%), overall difficulty (27%) and even forgetfulness (31%).

Typical workflows involve logging into external websites, navigating EHR drop-down menus, and receiving alerts or alarms within the EHR, resulting in a suboptimal experience for overburdened healthcare professionals.

Insiteflow CEO Anthony Gerardi explains most clinicians spend lots of time throughout their day recording their observations and decisions in their EHRs, and some even spend time at night.

“Physicians are spending on average an hour every night working in their EHRs, often referred to as pajama time,” he said. From his perspective, having to use 6-20 or more solutions, combined with disparate and cumbersome workflows, is not only contributing to clinician fatigue and burnout, but also negatively impacting patient outcomes.

He points out clinicians use best-in-class insights while working in their EHRs to improve patient care, but when their workflow experience for using these insights adds to their burnout and fatigue, and also negatively impacts patient outcomes, everyone suffers.

“Clinicians are not at their best when they are constantly fatigued,” said Gerardi. We need to make it easier for clinicians to use best in class insights while working in their EHRs.”

THE LARGER TREND
Previous studies have indicated EHRs that deliver suboptimal user experience are more likely to lead to alert fatigue and less likely to catch errors that could impact hospital safety.

While lack of efficiency in using electronic health records is most correlated with clinician burnout, healthcare organizations want vendors to help them improve EHR experiences, according to the KLAS Arch Collaborative.

Oracle Cerner recently added generative AI to its EHR platforms with Clinical Digital Assistant, a tool which can respond to conversational voice prompts from clinicians and is aimed at reducing mundane work that leads to burnout.

ON THE RECORD

“Imagine if the tools on your computer that you need to do your job were so cumbersome, they caused you to be fatigued, burn out and to have to work extra hours to get your job done,” said Gerardi. “How would this impact the quality of your work?”

Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin.
Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com
Twitter: @dropdeaded209