Research Day
TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGED OR JUST BURNED OUT? DIFFERING PERCEPTIONS ON THE VALUE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (HER)
Document Type
Abstract
Date
2021
Abstract
Background: There is a common belief that age and gender influences clinicians’ proficiency with EHRtechnology and the propensity for burnout. Insufficient evidence exists on the relationship betweenthese variables, technological proficiency, and burnout.
Objective: To investigate how years of practice, gender, and burnout influence perceived impact ofincreased EHR use on quality, cost, and efficiency of care.
Methods: We surveyed ambulatory primary care and subspecialty clinicians,measuring their opinions (positive, none, negative, don’t know) on how EHR technology hasimpacted three attributes of healthcare: "Quality,” “Cost,” and “Efficiency of Care.” We used Chi‐squaretests to analyze association between years of practice (≤10 years or 11+ years), gender, and burnout onthe reported attributes. Bonferroni corrected α=0.0167 was used to protect against Type I error amongmultiple comparisons.
Results: Of 640 clinicians, the 281 (44%) who responded indicated their perceived value of increasedEHR use on the defined attributes. Clinicians who screened negative for burnout were more likely toindicate that increased EHR use has a positive impact on both the quality and efficiency of healthcare. Ofthe 127 (45%) clinicians that screened positive for burnout, the perceived impact of increased EHR wasmost frequently negative with regard to quality (n=57; 45%) and efficiency (n=82; 65%). Perceivedimpact of increased EHR use did not significantly differ by experience or gender.
Conclusion: Burnout is significantly associated with clinicians’ perceived value of EHR technologies while age and gender are not.