PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mark Chun Moon
AU  - Rebecca Hills
AU  - George Demiris
TI  - Understanding optimisation processes of electronic health records (EHRs) in select leading hospitals: a qualitative study
AID  - 10.14236/jhi.v25i2.1011
DP  - 2018 Apr 01
TA  - BMJ Health & Care Informatics
PG  - 109--125
VI  - 25
IP  - 2
4099  - http://informatics.bmj.com/content/25/2/109.short
4100  - http://informatics.bmj.com/content/25/2/109.full
AB  - Background Little is known about optimisation of electronic health records (EHRs) systems in the hospital setting while adoption of EHR systems continues in the United States.Objective To understand optimisation processes of EHR systems undertaken in leading healthcare organisations in the United States.Methods Informed by a grounded theory approach, a qualitative study was undertaken that involved 11 in-depth interviews and a focus group with the EHR experts from the high performing healthcare organisations across the United States.Results The study describes EHR optimisation processes characterised by prioritising exponentially increasing requests with predominant focus on improving efficiency of EHR, building optimisation teams or advisory groups and standardisation. The study discusses 16 types of optimisation that interdependently produced 16 results along with identifying 11 barriers and 20 facilitators to optimisation.Conclusions The study describes overall experiences of optimising EHRs in select high performing healthcare organisations in the US. The findings highlight the importance of optimising the EHR after, and even before, go-live and dedicating resources exclusively for optimisation.