Development of an Electronic Patient Record

Abstract

Selecting an effective electronic patient record (EPR) system is a challenge for both large and small medical organizations. As a result, significant investments are often wasted or fail to meet expectations. This paper presents the ecological design of an evaluation tool that healthcare providers can use to determine how well an EPR matches its workflow, functional requirements, and performance expectations. Five stages were conducted. First, the academic and applied literatures were reviewed for issues of importance in the selection process. Existing EPR systems were benchmarked to identify baseline levels of functionality and performance and identify gaps with the expectations found in the literature. A prototype survey instrument was developed to articulate the design. Contextual interviews were conducted with administrators, doctors, nurses, and health IT experts to review the design concept and scope. Finally, the prototype instrument was revised to reflect the results of the interviews. The result is the architecture for a tool that medical organizations can use to select and customize an EPR tailored to their specific needs.