As B.C.’s health care system moves toward more digital solutions, electronic health records (EHRs) have been introduced with the goal of improving patient care. However, as Dr. Olivia L. Tseng and Dr. Esther Lee explain in a recent letter to the BC Medical Journal, EHRs are making life harder for many physicians.
More administrative work
Since the rollout of EHR systems like Cerner in hospitals across B.C., doctors are now taking on more administrative tasks that used to be done by other staff. With transcription services gone, doctors have to dictate or type reports themselves. Dictation software isn’t always accurate, especially with names or accents, meaning doctors spend extra time fixing mistakes. This added workload has led to a decrease in productivity, with 72 per cent of doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital reporting they were less efficient after switching to the Cerner system.
Complex and frustrating to use
EHR systems are supposed to make things easier, but for many doctors, they’ve only added complexity. Entering information is time-consuming and doctors often have to work with multiple versions of the system at the same time. Incomplete or fragmented patient data across different platforms means doctors spend more time piecing together patient records.
Impact on patients
These EHR issues are affecting both doctors and patients. With so much time spent on administrative tasks, doctors have less time to spend on patient care. In fact, in a 10-hour emergency room shift, doctors spend over an hour just clicking through the EHR system. This heavy administrative burden has led some doctors to retire early, worsening the shortage of care providers.
Dr. Tseng and Dr. Lee argue that while EHRs are here to stay, they need to be improved to truly help doctors do their jobs. They call for more research and solutions to make these systems easier to use, so doctors can focus more on patient care and less on paperwork.
Read the full letter here.