BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

• Healthcare IT interoperability should allow for the seamless exchange electronic information to improve patient care and related efforts
• Everson et al. (JAMA Netw Open, 2024) assessed PCP perspectives on the state of interoperability

METHODS:

• Cross-sectional survey
  • Data derived from the American Board of Family Medicine certification process
  • Includes completion of the Continuous Certification Questionnaire (CCQ)
• Participants
  • Family medicine physicians in the US
• Study design
  • 18 items on the CCQ assessed experience accessing and using various information from outside organizations
• Primary outcome
  • Satisfaction with interoperability

RESULTS:

• 2088 physicians
  • Women: 50%
  • Practiced in hospitals or health system–owned practices: 35%
  • Practiced in independently owned practices: 27%
• Satisfaction with ability to electronically access all 10 types of information from outside organizations
  • Very satisfied: 11%
  • At least somewhat satisfied: 70%
• Ease of use of information from outside organizations
  • Very easy: 23%
  • At least somewhat easy: 65%
• Reported information from different EHR developers’ products was very easy to use: 8%
• Reported information from the same EHR developers’ product was very easy to use: 38%

CONCLUSION:

• Family medicine physicians reported only modest satisfaction with healthcare EHR interoperability
• Truly improving interoperability will likely require diverse policy and strategies
• The authors state

Findings revealed that satisfaction varied across multiple dimensions—by physician, by the EHR from which the data originated, and by the type of information—and that physicians frequently experienced both missing information and too much information

Learn More – Primary Sources:

Primary Care Physicians’ Satisfaction With Interoperable Health Information Technology