According to KLAS, nearly half of clinicians believe their EMRs are not loading fast enough, and nearly a quarter believe their systems are not available when needed Report Posted Wednesday.
Given the survey responses, it would be wise for vendors to improve their EMR system response time and reliability, as these two measures heavily impact clinician satisfaction. These improvements are urgently needed amid healthcare workforce shortages – KLAS alone Report Research released in April found that burnout and EMR dissatisfaction were key factors associated with a clinician’s likelihood of quitting.
In its latest report, KLAS surveyed more than 295,000 clinicians in more than 270 healthcare facilities. Only 90 percent of respondents from 18 organizations reported little or no difficulty with EMR availability. Given the widespread dissatisfaction with EMR, it’s perhaps unsurprising that no organization has more than 90% of respondents agreeing that they experience few or no issues with EMR usability.
A frustrated nurse interviewee responded:
“There are so many alerts that keep popping up that don’t help at all – not at all. The alerts are repetitive, inappropriate, immediately ignorable, just another button to press when I’m already busy. I’ve waited 10 Minutes for the EMR to load while my patient who just had major surgery screamed in pain.”
On the other hand, response time and reliability are not common issues for organizations with the highest overall EMR satisfaction. The report shows that less than 40% of clinicians in nearly all organizations with an overall EMR satisfaction rating of 80% see response time as a problem, and less than 20% see reliability as a problem.
Additionally, clinicians who believe their systems are reliable are more likely to agree that their EMR contributes to patient safety. A full 75% of clinicians say their EMR is fast and they agree it keeps patients safe. For clinicians who agreed that their EMR was reliable, the figure was 66%.
To ensure EMR is reliable and fast, the report recommends that providers follow their vendor’s infrastructure recommendations and update to the latest version of vendor systems. According to best practices published by Epic, Cerner, and Meditech, for many vendors, these vendors will hold the top three positions in the emergency hospital EMR market in 2021. class’ research.
Regardless of the provider, KLAS’ recent report makes it clear that clinicians are seriously disturbed by the time it takes to wait for an EMR. One nurse interviewee noted that after entering a password, the organization’s EMR system took 60 seconds to load. Considering how many times nurses have to log in during the workday, that means they can spend nearly 10% of their shift waiting for an EMR to become available.
“All EMRs are bad,” said Dr. A. Vishnu Pandurangadu, an emergency physician at Rush Oak Park Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. “Here’s a ranking of EMRs from worst to worst based on personal experience: Meditech, Cerner, Allscripts, Epic.”
Photo: pandpstock001, Getty Images
