Doctors seek user-friendliness, interoperability from EHRs

In her two decades practicing internal medicine, Caroline Poplin, MD, has worked with numerous electronic health record (EHR) systems in a variety of settings. Based on that experience she knows exactly what she wants from an EHR.

“I want it to help me take care of the patient in front of me,” she says. “I don’t care about billing or meeting performance objectives or any of that other stuff. I want to know as much as I can about this patient, right now.”

For Poplin and physicians around the country, finding an EHR designed solely for improving patient care remains a source of simmering frustration, judging by the results of the  Medical Economics 2017 EHR Report. Much as in previous years, responses to the latest survey reflect dissatisfaction with many aspects of EHRs, from the way they interfere with the doctor/patient relationship to the difficulty of sending and receiving data from other providers and institutions.

Here’s a more in-depth look at these concerns, along with doctors’ comments about the EHR industry, their suggestions for improvements in its products., and responses from three leading EHR vendors.