The majority of nurses feel that electronic health records (EHRs) help improve patient safety, make it easier to find comprehensive patient information, and enhance collaboration with clinicians inside their organizations, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by HIMSS Analytics on behalf of health IT vendor Allscripts, asked more than 600 nurses who represent multiple EHR vendors, types of care settings, and roles. Results include:
- Nurses would not consider going back to paper-based medical records (71 percent)
- Nurse respondents agree that EHR benefits are good for patient safety:
- Improve patient safety and avoid medication errors (72 percent)
- Enable collaboration with other clinicians inside their organizations (73 percent)
However, the responses weren’t entirely positive when it comes to EHRs. Respondents were less likely to agree that EHRs help efficiency:
- Enable collaboration with clinicians outside their organizations (49 percent)
- Eliminate duplicate work (43 percent)
- Give nurses more time with patients (33 percent)
"This study is helpful for anyone who wants to better understand how healthcare IT affects nurses, from their point of view," Brendan FitzGerald, research director at HIMSS Analytics, said in a statement. "Results show that nurses have the highest levels of satisfaction around how EHRs improve the quality of clinical decisions. But there are also findings that indicate EHR vendors could do more to improve nursing workflows."
