The EPRS of a Doctor's Dreams
/When I started as a doctor, over a decade ago, documentation methods were pretty much as they had been for the previous 20 years before that. At the end of each ward was a huge clunky trolley, which held patient notes. The sacrificial lamb for the ward round (usually an F1) would be tasked with wheeling the trolley around so the consultant’s review could be recorded in real time. Some patient notes would be so big, the manila folders would break, leaving an unwieldy set of papers held together with a treasury tag.
paper patient notes… A fossil?
Archaic is not the word.
Over my career I’ve seen the digitisation of the health system. NHS Digital states that now 90% of trusts use electronic patient record systems (EPRS) (1) in line with the Government’s 2022 Plan for Digital Health and Social Care (2). But considering these softwares fall under the umbrella of med tech, a field that boasts electronic medical marvels like cochlear implants and automatic defibrillators, many medical software systems remain impractical and poorly designed.
In my day to day life as a GP, EPRS are the digital health technologies I interact with most. Instead of the giant paper notes of yore, they are the systems recording the patient’s medical history on computers and clouds. When they are good, they can be very good, shearing off minutes from my precious 10 minute consultation, which I can then give back to my patient.
“But when EPRS are bad, they can be horrid. In the worst case scenario, EPRS with non-intuitive design can lead to prescribing errors.”
But when EPRS are bad, they can be horrid. In the worst case scenario, EPRS with non-intuitive design can lead to prescribing errors, one of the worst mistakes to make due to the direct impact on the patient. Of the lesser evils are slow systems, which freeze when trying to work at GP light speed or tech rollouts, that don’t take time to onboard its users. Some of this can be mitigated by having intuitive, smart design, which minimises the need for multiple mandatory training sessions (med tech companies could take a leaf out of Apple’s child-friendly UX). We may be doctors, but that doesn’t mean we want our EPRS to be the equivalent of sitting the BMAT on a daily basis.
So if I could shout out to any EPRS company out there (hey EMIS! I see you!)
The EPRS of a GP’s Dreams:
Is:
Safe
(Simple steps to prescribe medications and record information. Warnings in place if an error looks like it’s being made)
User-friendly
(Not too many steps to log-on, do a task, streamlined, intuitive)
Fast
(No freezing/crashes please)
That’s not too much to ask is it?