Black Book Market Research finds Nurses' EHR Dissatisfaction Hits Record High

Dissatisfaction with inpatient electronic health record systems has reached an all-time high among nurses, according to a report by Black Book Market Research, Health Data Management reports (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 10/20).  

Report Details

Black Book's third quarter 2014 Loyalty Poll surveyed 13,650 U.S. nurses to gauge their satisfaction with their hospitals' EHR system.

The full results will be released later this month.

Report Findings

The report found that 92% of nurse respondents reported being dissatisfied with their organization's inpatient EHR system (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 10/20). Specifically, the report found that:

  • 94% of respondents said they do not believe that communication between the nurse and the rest of the care team has improved;
  • 90% said their EHR system has adversely affected communication between nurses and patients;
  • 85% said they struggle daily with flawed EHR systems; and
  • Just 26% agreed with the statement: "As a nurse, I believe the current EHR at my organization improves the quality of patient information" (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 10/20).

Further, the report found that 88% of surveyed nursed blamed their hospitals' financial administrators and CIOs for choosing low-performing systems based on price, rather than quality of care delivery.

Eighty-four percent of nurse administrators at not-for-profit hospitals said EHRs' effect on nurses' workloads was not given enough consideration during the EHR selection process, compared with 97% of nurse administrators at for-profit hospitals (Health Data Management, 10/20).

The report also found:

  • 79% of job-seeking nurses said the reputation of a hospital's EHR system is a "top three" consideration for employment;
  • 69% of nurses in for-profit hospitals called their IT department "incompetent";
  • 67% of nurses reported being taught workarounds in flawed EHRs to enable other providers to view appropriate patient information; and
  • 30% of nurses said their IT departments respond quickly to fix potential vulnerabilities in documentation (Healthcare IT News, 10/20).
Source: iHealthBeat, Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Usability People work with you on improving the Usability of Healthcare IT.


The Usability People
Together we may save a life! #SafeHealthIT