Nurses' Ease-of-Use Ratings of the Electronic Medical Record in the Care of Persons With Heart Failure

KEY POINTS A descriptive study to evaluate RNs' ratings of ease of use of the electronic medical record in the care of persons hospitalized with heart failure. Highest-scoring ease-of-use items include ease of entering nursing documentation and ease of retrieving patients' results. Lowest-scoring ease-of-use items include retrieving heart failure historical documentation and completion of the discharge documentation workflow. Cronbach's α of the Likert-scored ease-of-use survey items was .920, indicative of excellent degrees of internal consistency. A pproximately 6.5 million people in the United States live with heart failure, and each year, an estimated 400 000 to 700 000 new cases are diagnosed. Heart failure is the costliest chronic, terminal condition and continues to challenge patients and their clinicians who provide and coordinate care. Effective documentation within the electronic medical record (EMR) can add benefit to the care provided to persons with heart failure. Electronic medical records can enhance communication between all members of the interprofessional healthcare team. Furthermore, the EMR can support patient safety initiatives, promote positive patient outcomes, and contribute to cost savings by preventing the duplication of services and unplanned readmissions. Effective EMR documentation also supports continuity of care between admissions and, in most integrated healthcare systems, between hospitals, outpatient follow-up appointments, and other specialty visits. The purpose of this study was to explore ease of use of the EMR in supporting the nursing care of heart failure patients while in the hospital. LawrenceWeed first conceptualized the Problem-Oriented Medical Record in the late 1960s and offered that complex health information could reside in a database. Soon after, the first EMRs were developed, and these tools have advanced along with the computer hardware and network infrastructures that support them. Today, EMRs facilitate clinical data capture and information retrieval needs throughout healthcare enterprises. This is a broad spectrum of support, including basic care needs such as wellness and general sick visits, to complex care of ICU patients, documentation of surgical procedures, and the management of chronic conditions. Management of chronic illness, such as heart failure, requires the integration of large amounts of longitudinal data that is accurate and timely. Greater ease of use of the EMR can positively impact the accurate and timely capture of essential clinical information and therefore benefit the care of persons with heart failure.