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Challenges with Adoption of Electronic Medical Record Systems

Among health care information systems, past research has credited Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems with offering the greatest potential for improving quality within health care environments. Benefits range from reducing errors to cutting overall health care costs. For instance, the utility of an EMR system will allow physicians’ enterprise wide access to a patient’s entire medical chart, monitor patients’ care for possible drug interaction, proactively prompt doctor(s) with recommended treatment, provide clinical decision support, simplify record keeping, e-prescription, documented referrals, and reminders to patients and health care providers. Despite these benefits and a defined movement to integrate EMR systems in medical outfits, adoption of EMR systems by health care professionals has been very slow (Audet, Doty, Peugh, Shamasdin, Zapert, & Schoenbaum, 2004; Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2005; Miller & Sim, 2004; Simon & Simon, 2006). According to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Report (2005) only 25 % of office-based physicians are recorded as partial or fully using EMR systems. Nevertheless, interest to adopt EMR systems continues to be significant (Miller & Sim, 2004). What accounts for the slow adoption of EMR systems? To answer, we must identify and address challenges associated with this process. A review of the recent practitioners, academic health informatics literature, and provisions of HIPPA Act of 1996 (Adler & Edsall, 2005; Audet et al., 2004; Baharozian, 2005; Edsall & Adler, 2005; Hough, Chen, & Lin, 2005; Lenhart, Loomis, Criswell, & Meggs, 2000; Miller & Sim, 2004; Retchin, Wenzel, &, 1999; Swartz, 2005; Valdes, Kibbe, Tolleson, Kunik, & Petersen, 2004) cite several barriers faced with the adoption process. Further analysis also suggests that the promises of successful EMR deployment will not be fully realized unless concerns linked to the EMR implementation process are alleviated. We investigated EMR adoption by conducting open ended interviews with EMR managers, vendors, and physicians to explore their experiences with their EMR implementation. In this article, we present the results from our study. The next section highlights challenges associated with EMR adoption and use. We conclude by suggesting solutions geared towards lessening these challenges thereby clearing the path for successful EMR adoption and use.