The report “AHRQ Digital Healthcare Research Program Year in Review 2021, published September 2022, describes how researchers at the MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) https://medstarhealth.org under a contract to AHRQ for $1,224,973, studied how to Improve EHR Usability for Patient Safety.
Today poor EHR design and usability hurts patients and providers. While EHRs are used almost universally by hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country, the systems are not usually deliberately designed, developed, and implemented with a focus on usability.
Poor design and usability can lead to errors that compromise patient safety and disrupt provider workflow, contributing to increased cognitive burden. Such challenges can lead to provider burnout, resulting in providers leaving the profession.
To better understand EHR usability and safety issues Dr. Raj Ratwani and a team of researchers at MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, partnered with computer scientists and clinical experts at Georgetown University and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices to pinpoint digital healthcare related patient safety gaps in current EHR systems.
The research team developed algorithms to identify usability and safety issues obtained from patient safety event reports. Explicit language was identified to associate possible patient harm with an EHR usability issue in both adults and children.
Go to https://digital.ahrq.gov/program-overview/research-reports/2021-year-review for the “Improving Healthcare Through AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program”. The article “Improving Electronic Health Record Usability for Patient Safety” is included.