Life After a Disastrous Electronic Medical Record Implementation: One Clinic’s Experience

The majority of users of an electronic medical record (EMR) at a family medicine clinic located in a small city in the western United States are currently quite dissatisfied with the system. The practice experienced a disastrous implementation of the EMR in 1994 and has not recovered. Although the level of dissatisfaction varies among the practice employees, several influential physicians are pushing to pull the plug and start over with a brand new system. The authors of this case studied this practice during a more comprehensive qualitative study of the impact of an EMR system on primary care. The practices negative experience was particularly noteworthy, because the other four practices in the larger study were satisfied with the EMR system. As with most system failures, there are multiple organizational and other factors that have contributed to the frustrations and dissatisfactions with the use of EMR within this practice.