A comparison of use of the mobile electronic health record by medical providers based on clinical setting

Technology can help streamline processes and improve communication between healthcare providers and patients. The electronic health record (EHR), along with its mobile application, have demonstrated the ability to improve the efficiency and accuracy of health care delivery. Given these capabilities, further research in technology adoption and utilization is warranted to determine best strategies for usage and deployment. By usage analysis one can ascertain if certain groups find mobile EHR (mEHR) tools more usable and useful than other groups. To determine if medical providers in different work settings at an academic pediatric hospital have similar or dissimilar frequencies of mEHR use, we categorized providers as inpatient, ambulatory, critical care, or emergency medicine according to their EHR profile departments. This study included data from 874 health care providers over a 12-month period regarding their usage of mobile phone (EPIC® Haiku) and tablet (EPIC® Canto) mEHR. Tablet mEHR use was relatively low compared to mobile phone EHR access, accounting for only 8% of total mEHR logins. Furthermore, ambulatory and inpatient care providers had the greatest usage levels over the 12-month period. Critical care providers do not utilize mEHR tools nearly as much as ambulatory or inpatient providers, likely due to workflow differences. Since clinical setting does affect usage levels of the mEHR, understanding of provider workflow can be helpful in maximizing the potential of these digital tools. Awareness of workflow allows for optimization of mEHR design and implementation, which should increase mEHR adoption and usage, leading to better health outcomes for patients.