With near universal U.S. adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) now, physicians and other clinicians should be realizing the rewards of working with digital documents. That includes improved workflows that leave more time to develop treatments and provide direct patient care.

 

Too often, however, just the opposite occurs. Physicians often complain they get bogged down retrieving or adding medical records within their EHR system – leaving less time for clinical care or longer days inputting data after hours. This isn’t a new grievance, but despite recent vendor efforts to optimize EHR software, it’s still a consistent one.

“Cynicism and high levels of exhaustion are linked to extensive EHR use, which speaks to our current problem: Clinicians are forced to serve their EHRs when it should be the other way around,” said Mark Byers, CEO of DSS, Inc., a health information software development and systems integration provider.