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Comparative Study
. 2018 Sep 1;25(9):1197-1201.
doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocy088.

A usability and safety analysis of electronic health records: a multi-center study

Raj M Ratwani  1   2 , Erica Savage  1 , Amy Will  1 , Ryan Arnold  3 , Saif Khairat  4 , Kristen Miller  1 , Rollin J Fairbanks  1   2 , Michael Hodgkins  5 , A Zachary Hettinger  1   2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

A usability and safety analysis of electronic health records: a multi-center study

Raj M Ratwani et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. .

Abstract

To characterize the variability in usability and safety of EHRs from two vendors across four healthcare systems (2 Epic and 2 Cerner). Twelve to 15 emergency medicine physicians participated from each site and completed six clinical scenarios. Keystroke, mouse click, and video data were collected. From the six scenarios, two diagnostic imaging, laboratory, and medication tasks were analyzed. There was wide variability in task completion time, clicks, and error rates. For certain tasks, there were an average of a nine-fold difference in time and eight-fold difference in clicks. Error rates varied by task (X-ray 16.7% to 25%, MRI: 0 to 10%, Lactate: 0% to 14.3%, Tylenol: 0 to 30%; Taper: 16.7% to 50%). The variability in time, clicks, and error rates highlights the need for improved implementation optimization. EHR implementation, in addition to vendor design and development, is critical to usable and safe products.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Time on task by site and vendor.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Number of clicks by site and vendor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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