Tailoring EHRs for Specific Working Environments Improves Work Well-Being of Physicians.
Electronic health records (EHRs) have an impact on physicians' well-being and stress levels. We studied physicians' experiences with EHRs and their experienced time pressure and self-rated stress by an electronic questionnaire sent to Finnish physicians aged under 65 in 2017. Our sample was 2980 physicians working in the public sector, health care centers (35.5%) or hospitals (64.5%). Experienced technical problems were positively associated with experienced time pressure, whereas user-friendliness of the EHRs was negatively associated with experienced time pressure. Low perceived support for internal cooperation was associated with high levels of time pressure in hospitals. Those experiencing high levels of technical problems were 1.3 times more likely to experience stress compared to those experiencing low levels of technical problems. Better user-friendliness of the EHRs was associated with lower levels of self-rated stress. In both working environments but more strongly in primary health care, technical problems were associated with self-rated stress. Technical problems and user-friendliness of EHRs are the main factors associated with time pressure and self-rated stress. Health care environments differ in the nature of workflow having different demands on the EHRs. Developing EHR systems should consider the special needs of different environments and workflows, enabling better work well-being amongst physicians.
['Vainiomäki|Suvi|S|0000-0002-4724-4120', 'Heponiemi|Tarja|T|', 'Vänskä|Jukka|J|', 'Hyppönen|Hannele|H|']
D000328:Adult D057286:Electronic Health Records D005260:Female D005387:Finland D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010820:Physicians D057188:Workflow D016526:Workload D017132:Workplace
electronic health records workflow work–life balance