Research Assessment #8

Date - November 22, 2019

Study - Interventional Cardiology

Citation - Brown, et al. “Electronic Health Records.” PSNet,

https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/electronic-health-records.

Analysis -

During my interview with Dr. Guerra one of our discussion points was about the flaws within

medical city’s electronic health record system (EHRs) as in his opinion the system was not only

taking too long to perform basic functions but was also not optimal for performance and patient

interaction. So I decided to further find not only issues with the EHRs but also some of the

benefits which this article highlights both. Some of the benefits of EHRs was decrease in medical

errors, guideline adherence, safety and job satisfaction. At first I had a hard time believing this

especially after the interview with Dr. Guerra as in his opinion it made his job more difficult as

he was having to place focus on the EHRs rather than patient experience as with each patient he

had to do paperwork and then additional work on the EHRs. the EHRs seems to be a data

collecting system which is designated to physicians to collect the data as they are working with

patients everyday rather than an IT field or even a PA to do which would not only help with

patient-physician relationship but also with workload as it would be distributed to multiple

people not just one person. The issues of the EHRs that are highlighted by the article is user

functionality, poor navigation and the difference between EHRs focus and clinic workflow

which led to distractions.

During my interview with Dr. Guerra he demonstrated just how to open a single note on

the EHRs which took nearly fifteen clicks which is astounding on how long that takes because
while it seems like just fifteen clicks, nothing loads automatically as the latency between the

EHRs and the device is too long. Which in turn causes more time to be spent with each visit but

that time is not directed towards patients but rather to entering data into a computer which is not

the role of a physician should be doing. With the decrease workflow this could distract

physicians as there is a heavy importance on entering the data which in turn makes the

physicians feel like they must work two jobs in one. In all the current EHRs has its benefits with

proper safety and decreased errors which do benefit patients. The more surprising fact found in

the article was that the current EHRs increases job satisfaction as that directly contrasts Dr.

Guerra’s view of EHRs and the value of medicine as medicine is here to make people live

another day and give their life back not to enter their data into a system. The EHRs still needs to

be fixed and it is a possibility even I could come up with certain functions could benefit the

physicians more than the current system. Even with this case study I believe the EHRs is still

highly flawed and does more damage to the field rather than benefit as a direct experience

account from Dr. Guerra is more believable and trustworthy and that I was given a look through

the EHRs itself and could see the flaws off the bat.