Understanding the perceived role of electronic health records and workflow fragmentation on clinician documentation burden in emergency departments

Objective: Understand the perceived role of electronic health records (EHR) and workflow fragmentation on clinician documentation burden in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: From February to June 2022, we conducted semistructured interviews among a national sample of US prescribing providers and registered nurses who actively practice in the adult ED setting and use Epic Systems' EHR. We recruited participants through professional listservs, social media, and email invitations sent to healthcare professionals. We analyzed interview transcripts using inductive thematic analysis and interviewed participants until we achieved thematic saturation. We finalized themes through a consensus-building process.

Results: We conducted interviews with 12 prescribing providers and 12 registered nurses. Six themes were identified related to EHR factors perceived to contribute to documentation burden including lack of advanced EHR capabilities, absence of EHR optimization for clinicians, poor user interface design, hindered communication, increased manual work, and added workflow blockages, and five themes associated with cognitive load. Two themes emerged in the relationship between workflow fragmentation and EHR documentation burden: underlying sources and adverse consequences.

Discussion: Obtaining further stakeholder input and consensus is essential to determine whether these perceived burdensome EHR factors could be extended to broader contexts and addressed through optimizing existing EHR systems alone or through a broad overhaul of the EHR's architecture and primary purpose.

Conclusion: While most clinicians perceived that the EHR added value to patient care and care quality, our findings underscore the importance of designing EHRs that are in harmony with ED clinical workflows to alleviate the clinician documentation burden.