Restricted EHR Configuration Does Not Improve Clinician Efficiency, Study Finds

Restricting providers to opening one EHR record at a time did not reduce wrong-patient orders or clinician efficiency. A restricted EHR configuration limited to one patient record open at a time did not impact clinician efficiency, despite perceptions that an unrestricted EHR was more efficient, according to a study published in JAMIA. A prior randomized controlled trial showed no significant difference in wrong-patient errors between clinicians assigned to a restricted EHR configuration versus an unrestricted EHR configuration (allowing up to 4 records open concurrently). This substudy of the trial compared clinician efficiency between EHR configurations. Among 2,556 clinicians, there was no significant difference between unrestricted and restricted groups in total active minutes per day overall or by clinician type and practice area. Despite no difference in efficiency measures, the study participants reported greater efficiency in the unrestricted configuration.