Impact of electronic health records on the patient experience in a hospital setting

Abstract

BACKGROUND The impact of electronic health records (EHRs) and their effects on optimizing the patient experience has been debated nationally. Currently, there is a paucity of data in this area, and existing research offers conflicting results. Since 2006, the Assessing Residents' CI‐CARE (ARC) program has evaluated the physician‐patient interaction of resident physicians at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health utilizing a 20‐item questionnaire administered through facilitator‐patient interviews. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of EHR implementation on the patient experience. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Two academic medical campuses: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. METHODS A total of 3417 surveys, spanning December 1, 2012 to May 30, 2013, were assessed. This included patient representation from 9 departments within UCLA Health. Surveys were analyzed to assess physician‐patient communication. Statistical comparisons were made using χ analysis. RESULTS All 16 questions assessing physician‐patient communication received better responses in the 3 months following EHR implementation, compared to the 3 months prior to implementation. Of these, 9 questions illustrated statistically significant improvement, whereas the improvement in the remaining 7 questions was not statistically significant. DISCUSSION These results suggest that EHRs may improve physician‐patient communication. The ARC infrastructure allowed for observation of this trend; however, future research should aim to further validate and understand the etiologies of this improvement. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014;9:627–633. © 2014 Society of Hospital Medicine

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