- Drug Benefit Trends Vol 22 No 1
- Volume 22
- Issue 1
Electronic Medical Records: Functionality Misses the Mark in Coordination of Care
Although policymakers continue to push for greater adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), physicians already using these systems report difficulty in exchanging data because of program interoperability, according to a new report.1 “We found that many aspects of the EMRs are helpful for coordination of care delivered within the physician’s office,” said Ann S. O’Malley, MD, MPH, lead study author and senior researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, in an interview with Drug Benefit Trends. “But there are areas for both office care processes and EMR design to evolve in order for EMRs to better support coordination tasks.”
Although policymakers continue to push for greater adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), physicians already using these systems report difficulty in exchanging data because of program interoperability, according to a new report.1 “We found that many aspects of the EMRs are helpful for coordination of care delivered within the physician’s office,” said Ann S. O’Malley, MD, MPH, lead study author and senior researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, in an interview with Drug Benefit Trends. “But there are areas for both office care processes and EMR design to evolve in order for EMRs to better support coordination tasks.”
Although policymakers continue to push for greater adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), physicians already using these systems report difficulty in exchanging data because of program interoperability, according to a new report.1 “We found that many aspects of the EMRs are helpful for coordination of care delivered within the physician’s office,” said Ann S. O’Malley, MD, MPH, lead study author and senior researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, in an interview with Drug Benefit Trends. “But there are areas for both office care processes and EMR design to evolve in order for EMRs to better support coordination tasks.”
Her team sought to examine ways physicians use commercial EMRs to support coordination tasks as well as identify associated work-around practices. Sixty professionals were interviewed, including physicians or staff from 26 practices that had been using commercial ambulatory care EMRs for at least 2 years. In addition, chief medical officers at EMR vendors and thought leaders were included.
EMRs were shown to help in the coordination of intra-office care, such as allowing providers to access patient data during visits as well as providing electronic messaging. However, because EMR systems lack standardized design and key data elements, physicians found it difficult to use these programs to coordinate patient care between practices. In addition, EMRs are currently designed to meet billing and documentation needs, not patient and provider needs for clinical management.