14 Many physicians were pleased
about the orders and results of laboratory and radiology as they emphasised that this is the strongest point in the EMR system. They were also happy about the electronic prescription because it reduced errors and saved time. selleck catalog In a survey conducted by Robert et al,15 including 2719 family physicians in the USA, the respondents highlighted the advantages of the EMR which were almost similar to our findings. Their respondents stated that they were pleased with the EMR system since it was fast, easy to use, well documented, more precise and provided patient engagement tools such as the patient education resources and patients’ portal.15 However, American College of Physicians (ACP) and American EHR Partners conducted a survey reporting that physician dissatisfaction with the EMRs increased from 24% in 2010 to 39% in 2012. The reasons provided by the respondents for their dissatisfaction with the EMR was that the system was expensive and
was not significantly reducing their workload.16 They mentioned that computer skills had a major effect on understanding the EMR. In the literature review, computer literacy was identified as a major barrier to the implementation of the EMR. There was a finding that only emerged in the second focus group due to the presence of a physician who was previously exposed to the auditing process. The researchers were of the impression that physicians perceived the EMR as a significant threat when it was used to audit the physicians for documentation and patient confidentiality, for example, “the medical record do regular audit and find out, for example, why the chart has been opened”. Another example, “part of annual appraisal of the physicians is the (audio unclear) we have about eight competencies one of them is the documentation
and we usually audit at least 10 to 20 task for each physician and all the important factors the presenting symptom, the history of present illness the past medical history… we do for audit and this is why the physician are keen to have a complete or as much as we can about full documentation.” Physicians had a negative perception that they were monitored for their performance through the Cerner, which created Dacomitinib some discomfort during the session. This finding was not commonly identified in our literature review except in one study where the respondent reported the feedback as personal criticism.15 It is important to ensure that during the implementation of a new system, like the Cerner, users should be informed about the purpose of the use of the system and also about the auditing tool and the purpose of use of audits to allay fears and negative perceptions. The confidentiality issue was added to the moderators guide as a focus group questions after it emerged as a theme in the first focus group.