Doctors' use of electronic medical records systems in hospitals: cross sectional survey

Objectives To compare the use of three electronic medical records systems b y doctors in Norwegian hospitals for general clinical tasks. Design Cross sectional questionnaire survey. Semistructured telephone inter views with key staff in information technology in each hospital for details of local implementation of the systems. Setting 32 hospital units in 19 Norwegian hospitals with electronic medical records systems. Setting 32 hospital units in 19 Norwegian hospitals with electronic medical records systems. Participants 227 (72%) of 314 hospital doctors responded, equally distribut ed between the three electronic medical records systems. Main outcome measures Proportion of respondents who used the electronic sys tem, calculated for each of 23 tasks; difference in proportions of users of different systems when functionality of systems was similar. Results Most tasks listed in the questionnaire (15/23) were generally cover ed with implemented functions in the electronic medical records systems. Ho wever, the systems were used for only 2-7 of the tasks, mainly associated w ith reading patient data. Respondents showed significant differences in fre quency of use of the different systems for four tasks for which the systems offered equivalent functionality. The respondents scored highly in compute r literacy (72.2/100), and computer use showed no correlation with responde nts' age, sex, or work position. User satisfaction scores were generally po sitive (67.2/100), with some difference between the systems. Conclusions Doctors used electronic medical records systems for far fewer t asks than the systems supported.