A nationwide survey on physician sentiment toward technology, conducted by Geneia, a company creating analytic and technology solutions to improve health care, finds physicians believe technology is both a help and hindrance.
Physician views on electronic medical records (EMRs) are representative of their mixed feelings about technology in the workplace.
When asked whether the implementation of EMRs has had a positive or negative impact on their work, 24 percent of physicians say positive,19 percent negative, 53 percent a little of both, and 5 percent say they do not use EMRs.
“Seemingly, there is an inverse relationship between health IT spending and physician job satisfaction,” said Heather Lavoie, president & chief operating officer of Geneia. “The Geneia survey revealed that physician sentiment towards technology is surprisingly nuanced. Doctors are indicating that data and analytics tools have the potential to reduce time spent on recordkeeping, one of their primary frustrations, while also contributing to it.”
When asked their impression of the impact data and analytics tools have on the practice of medicine, 69 percent of physicians say they positively impact their ability to efficiently assess patient history and needs, 63 percent say they help them get value and improved outcomes from chart documentation, and
nearly 60 percent feel they help identify and triage the highest need patients and create greater efficiencies in office workflow.
On the other hand, more than 60 percent of physicians say that data and analytics tools negatively impact recordkeeping time.
In fact, when asked to identify the number one way data and analytics could improve their job, the most popular answer is to reduce the time spent on recordkeeping (41 percent), followed by more time with every patient (22 percent), better access to patients’ complete medical profile and history (20 percent), and more time with the patients who require enhanced care (14 percent).
