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These EHR systems sound difficult and time-consuming to use. If they can't/won't be directly improved any time soon, why don't nurses and doctors have data entr

These EHR systems sound difficult and time-consuming to use. If they can't/won't be directly improved any time soon, why don't nurses and doctors have data entry specialist partners to do the clicking and typing? Why not take some people with a 2-year medical data entry certification and train them to use $INSTITUTION's customized EHR system? It seems crazy to make people who are qualified to actually diagnose and treat patients spend half their time on clerical work using cumbersome software. Maybe people are worried that EHR quality would suffer if people with fewer credentials entered the data. According to the article EHR systems are already full of garbage data entered by physicians. Does it actually get worse if data entry specialists do the entry instead? This appears to be readily testable. You can have them do it in parallel with the physicians who enter their own EHR data now, and compare after a year.

maxxxxx 8y ago
The EHR systems I have seen in hospitals remind me of a lot of the typical enterprise software systems. Convoluted and really hard to use. Pretty much all the systems my company uses just plain suck. I think it has to do with the fact that the buyers (decision makers) of the system are not the actual users so decisions are made based on everything but usability.
nickthemagicman 8y ago
I agree. I feel like this is an implementation problem not a problem with EHR in general. Just because a Ford Pinto is a bad car doesn't mean cars in general are bad. As time goes on people will figure out new ways like you're suggesting of using the technology.
whowouldathunk 8y ago
They do, they’re called scribes.
- philipkglass 8y ago
  That makes sense. Do you know why they aren't more common, to the extent that many doctors apparently spend much of their day on EHR data entry? Maybe I'm just relying too much on this article plus a few similar complaints I've read in the past. Maybe most doctors don't spend much time on data entry but I only see the grievances of the few that are forced to.

maxxxxx 8y ago

The EHR systems I have seen in hospitals remind me of a lot of the typical enterprise software systems. Convoluted and really hard to use. Pretty much all the systems my company uses just plain suck. I think it has to do with the fact that the buyers (decision makers) of the system are not the actual users so decisions are made based on everything but usability.

nickthemagicman 8y ago

I agree. I feel like this is an implementation problem not a problem with EHR in general. Just because a Ford Pinto is a bad car doesn't mean cars in general are bad. As time goes on people will figure out new ways like you're suggesting of using the technology.

whowouldathunk 8y ago

They do, they’re called scribes.

philipkglass 8y ago
That makes sense. Do you know why they aren't more common, to the extent that many doctors apparently spend much of their day on EHR data entry? Maybe I'm just relying too much on this article plus a few similar complaints I've read in the past. Maybe most doctors don't spend much time on data entry but I only see the grievances of the few that are forced to.