How to Design a Comprehensive EHR Usability Assessment

A decade after the HITECH Act of 2009 first incentivized EHR adoption, many physicians remain dissatisfied with EHR design and are seeking improvements to EHR usability.

Optimizing an EHR so that it offers intuitive, streamlined workflows is imperative for promoting clinical efficiency and reducing provider burden. Shortening the amount of time clinicians spend sifting through patient data and navigating the EHR interface can help to cut down on unproductive keyboard time and allow providers to spend more time interacting face-to-face with patients.

Given that most physicians cite the patient-provider relationship as their primary source of career satisfaction, shifting the focus away from EHR data entry is a top priority for healthcare leadership.

More intuitive EHR interfaces may also prove to be a boon to patient safety, according to a 2018 JAMA study. Researchers found problems with EHR usability may contribute to incidents of patient harm. Furthermore, research suggests rates of patient satisfaction decline when providers spend a significant proportion of the patient encounter grappling with clunky EHR systems.

Looking for ONC-certified health IT during the EHR selection process can provide healthcare leadership with some assurance that a health IT system will have consumer-facing features intended to boost usability. Certified EHR technology (CEHRT) must undergo a baseline level of EHR usability testing in order to obtain certification.

However, some healthcare industry stakeholders have argued that the usability testing component of the ONC Health IT Certification Program lacks rigor and fails to evaluate functionality throughout the EHR lifecycle.

Conducting an EHR usability assessment post-implementation can help healthcare organizations quantify the efficiency and effectiveness of their EHR technology, develop workflows that meet their specific needs, and pinpoint opportunities for improving user satisfaction.