e marketinghandout
TRANSCRIPT
Background
The current adoption rate of electronic health records among medical facilities in the United States is very low with around 20% using some functions of an EHR. Only 4% of practices currently have and are using an EHR at a level consistent with proposed meaningful use criteria. Many physicians have cited cost as a significant barrier to purchasing and implementing an EHR in their practices. Financial incentives were created under Medicare and Medicaid as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to address this issue and encourage adoption. Even with these incentives available and increased promotion of the benefits of electronic systems, many medical practices are resisting the conversion to EHRs. At the root of this resistance is a collection of fears related to uncertainty about the future of health information technology. Our goal was to identify some of these fears and misconceptions commonly held by medical professionals to be able to address and dispel them as much as possible.
e-Marketing: An Approach to Overcoming
Non-Financial Barriers to EHR Adoption
Katie Wittman and Melissa BoufaidaThe University of Texas at Austin 2010
Summer HIT Certificate Program
Contact Information :
Katie Wittman (817)-689-7651 [email protected]
Melissa Boufaida (512)789-6057 [email protected]
The Survey
Q1. Which age bracket do you fall in?
• 29 or under • 30 to 39 • 40 to 49 • 50 or over
Q2. Is your work primarily clinical or administrative? • Clinical • Administrative
Q3. In what setting do you primarily work? • Hospital • Ambulatory Care • Long Term Care
• Other
Q4. How would you rate your knowledge of and skills using computers? • None or very minimal • Below average • Average • Above average • Expert
Q5. How familiar are you with electronic health records (EHRs)? • Not at all familiar • Somewhat familiar • Very familiar • I currently use an EHR
Q6. How familiar are you with health information exchanges (HIEs)? • Not at all familiar • Somewhat familiar • Very familiar • I currently work with an HIE
Q7. What fears and non-financial concerns do you have regarding EHRs and HIEs?
Q8. How concerned are you about the following issues related to EHRs and HIEs?
Not at all concerned
Slightly concerned Concerned Very concerned
Losing the "art" of medicine
Increased stress and accountability Looking incompetent while using technology in front of patients
Compromising patients' personal health information
Clinical staff being reduced to data entry clerks
Losing professional autonomy
Q9. Overall, how favorable are your impressions of EHRs and HIEs?
Very unfavorable
Somewhat unfavorable
Neither unfavorable nor favorable
Somewhat favorable
Very favorable
EHRs
HIEs
Q10. Thank you for your time! Please feel free to include any additional comments below.
E-Marketing has the ability to reach a larger audience than traditional print marketing. Other potential e-media formats for EHR marketing include webinars, social networking media, e-mail blasts, and search engine optimization.
Conclusions
The single greatest concern about EHRs among medical professionals is the potential for an unauthorized party to gain access to patient records (question 8, part 4). In reality, a paper chart room at a practice is equally susceptible to theft. Additionally, theft of paper records is difficult to trace and may often go unnoticed until the patient returns to the office. To address this concern, we created the banner advertisement below.
Methods
A web-based survey was created using Qualtrics© and distributed via e-mail to medical professionals. The survey contained 9 questions and a free response comment box. The Qualtrics© online survey software counted the responses, calculated means, and created graphs based on the data.
Results
We received 95 total responses to our survey. 43 of the submissions were from first responders and emergency medical services workers, many of who utilize electronic patient care records which are purchased by the city or county government whom employs them and which do not have the same capabilities as full EHRs. Since our goal was to develop promotional materials for medical professionals with a voice in the purchasing decision of a complete electronic health record, these responses were excluded from this project though the results are available for later study. 3 submissions were not fully completed and were also excluded. Among the 49 responses analyzed, 85% (44) were from clinical staff and 15% (8) were from administrative medical staff. 60% (29) work in an ambulatory care setting and 16% (8) work in a hospital with the remainder working in other settings including long term care and home health. A graph showing the age distribution of respondents is shown to the right.
DesRoches, Catherine M. et al. Electronic Health Records in Ambulatory Care -- A National Survey of Physicians. N Engl J Med 2008 359: 50-60
Sabogal, Fabio. EHR Adoption: A Barrier Analysis. DOQ-IT 4 June 2004.David Gans, John Kralewski, Terry Hammons, and Bryan Dowd Medical
Groupsʼ Adoption Of Electronic Health Records And Information Systems. Health Affairs, September/October 2005; 24(5): 1323-1333.
Lorenzi, N. M. et al. How to Successfully Select and Implement Electronic Health Records (EHR) in Small Ambulatory Practice Settings. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2009 9:15
References
96% (47) of respondents rated their knowledge of and skills using computers as average or better. 24% (12) of respondents indicated that they currently use an EHR at work and 1 respondent also connects with a health information exchange. In addition to including a free response question asking what non-financial concerns related to EHRs the respondents had, we asked them to rate how concerned they are with 6 particular issues: losing the “art” of medicine, increased stress and accountability, looking incompetent while using technology in front of patients, compromising patientsʼ personal health information, clinical staff being reduced to data entry clerks, and losing professional autonomy. These results are displayed in the table below.
Question Not at all concerned
Slightly concerned
Concerned Very concerned
Losing the “art” of medicine
19 21 5 4
Increased stress and accountability
18 18 9 4
Looking incompetent while using technology in front of patients
25 16 7 1
Compromising patients’ personal health information
13 18 11 7
Clinical staff being reduced to data entry clerks
14 19 9 7
Losing professional autonomy
14 23 8 4