Home Healthcare Clinicians' Perspectives on Electronic Health Records: A Qualitative Study

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2021 Dec 15:284:426-430. doi: 10.3233/SHTI210763.

Abstract

Clinicians' perspectives on the electronic health records (EHR) in home healthcare (HHC) are understudied. To explore this topic, qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 HHC clinicians in the Northeastern USA. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify key themes emerging from the interviews. While some EHR benefits were recognized, overall satisfaction with the EHR was low. The results suggest EHR limitations are tied to poor usability, restrictions, and redundancy in documentation leading to increased documentation workload. Clinicians have recommendations to mitigate these limitations via additional EHR functions and better patient risk detection. Future stakeholders should consider the results of this study when developing and updating the EHR in HHC.

Keywords: EHR; Home healthcare; qualitative; satisfaction.

MeSH terms

  • Delivery of Health Care
  • Electronic Health Records*
  • Humans
  • Qualitative Research
  • Workload*