Evidence for electronic health record systems in physical therapy

• HIT Description: Electronic health record (EHR) More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: To assess the effectiveness of electronic health records for physical therapy patients
  
• Years of study: Not Available
  
• Study Design: Systematic Review
  
• Outcomes: Other
  

• Settings: Physical therapy programs in hospitals and outpatient settings
• Intervention: Any EHR for physical therapy patients that contained the core functionality of health information and at least two other core functionalities
• Evaluation Method: Systematic review. Quantitative description of results of 13 studies of 7 EHR systems.
• Description: Systems varied Hardware systems ranged from a card-oriented mainframe computer to modern PCs on a network.
• Interoperability: Varied by system
• Strategy: Varied by system
• Facilitators: End-user input in system development, adequate staff training, and incorporating workflow analysis into user design all led to greater effectiveness
• Barriers: In one study, training was required during overtime on nights and weekends. In the early system which used a mainframe computer, system failures frustrated users and led to required overtime. Another system was built from donated equipment that ran slowly.
• Healthcare Utilization: In one study, the mean length of stay decreased from 115 days to 99 days for patients with quadriplegia and 109 days to 79 days for paaplegic patients.
• Quality of Care and Patient Safety Outcome: 7 of 13 included studies reported an improvement in interdepartmental communication. Clinical staff had a more comprehensive picture of the patients' status so treatment plans were more appropriate.
• Changes in efficiency and productivity: 11 of the 13 included studies report that the EHR improved efficiency. EHRs were superior to previous methods in storing, processing, and retrieving information. One study reported that documentation took 30% less time than handwritten notes.
• Time needed to accrue benefit: Varied