Publication:

A study on perception of clinicians regarding use of electronic medical record for patients attending outpatient departments in a tertiary care teaching hospital in northern India

Background Information technology is increasingly being recognized as an important tool for improving patient safety and quality of care. Use of electronic medical record has the greatest potential for improving quality in healthcare. Use of technology in a highly interactive environment such as the OPD has to be user friendly and acceptable. Therefore a study was carried out to assess the perception of clinicians regarding use of computer modules in clinical care in the outpatient departments of a tertiary care hospital in northern India.

Methods A cross sectional study was carried out over a period of two months in which 70 clinicians in the selected hospital were administered pre-designed questionnaire format for self reporting. It required them to rate their preferences regarding adoption of a computer based module for their OPDs and how this would affect their time and quality of patient care.

Results For a given computer based module in OPD, 81.4% of the clinicians supported its adoption. The mean scores suggested that most clinicians perceive that use of electronic medical record would improve quality of care. The mean scores for any of the parameters did not differ significantly amongst supporters and non-supporters of adoption of the module except on one parameter that it would be easier to follow a patient seen earlier by another clinician (p<0.05).

Conclusions Although there might be an initial resistance to change, overall clinicians perceive that introduction of electronic medical records on outpatient department would lead to improved quality of medical information management.