Electronic medical records not always easy to use for doctors and nurses

UT researcher studied factors for successful implementation of electronic medical records

7 February 2013

GP practices, nursing homes, hospitals and other healthcare providers are making more and more use of their own (local) electronic medical records. Doctors and nurses use these records to store information on their patients. Implementing these kinds of information storage and retrieval systems is often fraught with difficulty, however. Doctors and nurses tend not to make optimal use of the systems’ functionality. PhD student Margreet Michel-Verkerke suggests that this is because the systems do not provide adequate support to their end users: doctors and nurses. Michel-Verkerke will defend her dissertation at the University of Twente on 7 February.

Margreet Michel-Verkerke based her doctoral research on the success factors involved in the successful implementation of local electronic medical records. Michel-Verkerke explains her study: “My dissertation indicates that electronic medical records are successful when the system offers real support to healthcare providers in their work. I call this microrelevance. To achieve microrelevance, it is important that healthcare providers can access the information they require anywhere and at any time, and that the system contains the very information that they actually need. This sounds like a truism, but it is not. Often developers fail to fully understand exactly what doctors and nurses need in order to do their job well. The result is that the system does not correspond to the users’ working methods, and it is therefore not optimally implemented.” Together with colleagues, Michel-Verkerke developed the USE-IT model, which can analyse whether a system possesses sufficient microrelevance for the end user.

There are a number of other potential reasons for the poor implementation of electronic medical records systems. Michel-Verkerke explains: “In some situations users have little interest in entering the information properly into the system, either because they do not use the information themselves or because it is simply too much bother. It is crucial to think about how you can design the system so that there are no more impediments to entering data properly, for example by eliminating the need to sit down at a computer. Or you need to design the system so that the benefits to everyone are crystal clear.”

Seminar and Symposium
Within the framework of Margaret Michel-Verkerke’s doctoral defence, a seminar entitled ‘Electronic Patient Record: What makes care providers USE IT’ will take place at the University of Twente on 7 February. This seminar will focus on the introduction and adoption of IT resources in healthcare. Please see the website for further information.

Saxion University of Applied Sciences will also organize a symposium on 27 February entitled 'Elektronisch Patiënten Dossier: wanneer vindt de zorgverlener het PRIMA?’ (Electronic medical records: when will healthcare providers be convinced?). This symposium will focus on the acceptance of electronic medical records by the end user. Margreet Michel-Verkerke will discuss the main findings of her dissertation, and various speakers will share their experiences from the world of professional practice. Please see the website for further information.

Further details
Margreet Michel-Verkerke works as a researcher in the Technology in Healthcare research group, part of the Saxion Health, Welfare & Technology Research Centre. She is also a lecturer in the Health & Technology programme at Saxion University of Applied Sciences.
Margreet Michel-Verkerke will defend her doctoral dissertation Electronic Patient Record: What makes care providers USE IT? on 7 February. A copy of this PhD dissertation is available on request from Juliette Fhij, University of Twente Press Relations Department.

Contact person
Juliette Fhij, mobile +31 6 5793 9296