Work Environment Impacts Nurses’ Impression of Successful EHR Adoption, Researchers Find

In an attempt to study the sociotechnical factors that can shape the relationship between electronic health record adoption and quality of care, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that nurses’ satisfaction with the EHR shows a correlation with their assessment of the hospital work environment.

Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes & Policy Research (CHOPR) examined survey data on nurse satisfaction with EHR systems and the concurrent effects of EHR adoption level and the hospital work environment on usability and quality outcomes. Data from more than 12,000 nurses at 353 hospitals in four states show that nurses in hospitals with better environments are less likely than nurses in less favorable environments to report dissatisfaction with EHR systems.

The study, “Electronic Health Record Adoption and Nurse Reports of Usability and Quality of Care: The Role of Work Environment,” has been published in the journal Applied Clinical Informatics.

Nearly 40 percent of nurses working in hospitals with poor work environments reported dissatisfaction with the EHR system compared with less than 20 percent of nurses working in hospitals with better environments. Nearly half of nurses working in poor environments reported that the EHR system did not help them to work efficiently, compared with one-quarter of nurses in better environments.