Are Electronic Medical Records Helpful for Care Coordination? Experiences of Physician Practices

A study of small- and medium-sized physician practices found that electronic medical record (EMR) systems can help coordinate patient care within practice offices. However, because of interoperability issues, they are less able to support coordination between clinicians and across settings. Other challenges, like information overflow and reimbursement, also impede physicians' ability to use EMRs to improve patient care and coordination.

Key Findings

* Electronic medical records help to facilitate care coordination within a practice by making data available at a patient's visit. For example, features like instant messaging, e-mail, and electronic tasking (electronic notification of tasks that need to be performed) help prevent patient care needs from "falling through the cracks" while improving efficiency.

* Respondents noted that EMRs are less helpful for exchanging information between practices and settings because of a lack of interoperability. For instance, primary care physicians complained of not reliably receiving hospital admission or discharge summaries before they were needed for a care visit.

* EMRs can create the unintended result of producing an information overload. For instance, some clinicians complained that when using EMRs, the problem list—the main medical problems that the physician needs to know about during a visit—grew exponentially and became cluttered with redundant information because of information automatically generated by the EMR.

* Respondents noted the lack of financial incentives for coordination among providers. Until reimbursement rules change, EMR products will not prioritize coordination.

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