Effects of Data Entry Tools on Health Professionals' Productivity: A Survey

Abstract

The use of electronic health records (EHR) has become an important issue for accurate medical diagnosis. However, there exist two main difficulties in the creation of electronic health records which make EHR systems hard to deploy: collection of EHR data is time consuming and it is an error prone process. Selection of the most appropriate methods and tools is, therefore, significant for data entry by the health care providers at the point of care in order to maximize productivity. We have conducted a questionnaire to record health care professionals' perceptions of data entry process and determine the functions that, in the view of the professionals', would facilitate the process. The questionnaire consists of 18 basic questions, posted on several web sites which host questionnaires, and was also mailed to health care professionals working in various hospitals over a period of 10 months. Totally, 533 medical care professionals from 29 different countries participated in the survey, of which 284 were M. D., 127 were nurses and the remainder was other medical professionals. The questions focused on the following: workload, performance, productivity, data entry methods that are currently in use or preferred, potential productivity increase from using technological tools in creating EHR and motivational factors for the acceptance of a convenient data entry tool. The results indicate that the health care professionals have an excessive workload, and the use of convenient data entry tools would contribute to increase in productivity. While the clear majority of participants involved in data entry use keyboard and mouse, most expressed a preference for more convenient methods, such as voice recognition or touch screen. Furthermore, physicians reported rarely spending more than 15 minutes for each consultation and conducting 21-30 examinations a day. The main motivation for creating an efficient direct data entry was therefore, to increase time for patient examination and improve accuracy of the diagnosis.