In today’s ModernHealthcare.com there’s an article on EMR Usability and CCHIT Evaluation. The main point is simple, make the user friendly aspect of an EMR part of the certification process. I am in total agreement, most EMR may pass the “mechanical” aspects of interoperability but are hard to use.
The stimulus act ignores the brutal fact that traditional EHR systems will NOT solve much of the healthcare industry’s woes if doctors can’t or won’t use them. The incentives assume that “if you fund it they will come” this just isn’t the case. I love this remark in the article “Based on the “success” of EHR systems over the past 10 years, this bet could be akin to AIG’s bets on credit default swaps.”
Here’s the problem with usability, much of this is in the eyes of the beholder. Its not just a matter of how many clicks a task takes. I agree with the sentiment of the author but this is a very subjective issue, classic apples and oranges.
By Jordan Glogau
Greater coordinated care can be achieved by interfacing the EMR system with hospital
clinical applications, resulting in a more complete care assessment and reduced
critical errors.Hence it must be implemented.
Usability isn’t truly subjective. It’s complex, so it’s often experienced as subjective. It’s true that there are many different ways of practicing medicine. But there are common patterns that can be facilitated by good design. These is not a single universal standard. We do however have the methods needed to make the technology less of a burden to most practitioners.