A study of general practitioners' perspectives on electronic medical records systems in NHS Scotland

<b>Background</b> Primary care doctors in NHSScotland have been using electronic medical records within their practices routinely for many years. The Scottish Health Executive eHealth strategy (2008-2011) has recently brought radical changes to the primary care computing landscape in Scotland: an information system (GPASS) which was provided free-of-charge by NHSScotland to a majority of GP practices has now been replaced by systems provided by two approved commercial providers. The transition to new electronic medical records had to be completed nationally across all health-boards by March 2012. <p></p><b> Methods</b> We carried out 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with primary care doctors to elucidate GPs' perspectives on their practice information systems and collect more general information on management processes in the patient surgical pathway in NHSScotland. We undertook a thematic analysis of interviewees' responses, using Normalisation Process Theory as the underpinning conceptual framework. <p></p> <b>Results</b> The majority of GPs' interviewed considered that electronic medical records are an integral and essential element of their work during the consultation, playing a key role in facilitating integrated and continuity of care for patients and making clinical information more accessible. However, GPs expressed a number of reservations about various system functionalities - for example: in relation to usability, system navigation and information visualisation. <b>Conclusion </b>Our study highlights that while electronic information systems are perceived as having important benefits, there remains substantial scope to improve GPs' interaction and overall satisfaction with these systems. Iterative user-centred improvements combined with additional training in the use of technology would promote an increased understanding, familiarity and command of the range of functionalities of electronic medical records among primary care doctors

The pattern of silent time in the clinical consultation: an observational multichannel video study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe silent time in the clinical consultation: who initiates and terminates it and at what stage most silence occurs. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of 127 multichannel video recordings of consultations by 12 GPs; filmed using the ALFA (Aggregation of Log Files for Analysis) open-source toolkit. The start and end of silence was manually coded using an observational data capture tool. We report who initiates and terminates silence, describe the proportion of the consultation, what happens within it and the distribution of silent periods by quartile of the consultation. RESULTS: We found the median proportion of silence was 12.3% and interquartile range 14.3%. Silent periods (52.4%) were both initiated and terminated by the doctor. The majority of silent time (78.1%) is spent on computer-based activities and physical examination. Silent periods which do not involve physical examination mainly occur in the second half of the consultation and represent 70.6% of the total duration and 64.8% of the episodes of silence. CONCLUSIONS: The computer is a third party in the GP consultation and often requires silent time during doctor-computer interaction. Doctors' control and patients allow silence for the doctor to complete tasks often involving the computer and also for time out from the consultation. There is a clear pattern of when doctors need most to have silence and consultation models should be developed that reflect this need

The pattern of silent time in the clinical consultation: an observational multichannel video study

OBJECTIVE: To describe silent time in the clinical consultation: who initiates and terminates it and at what stage most silence occurs. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of 127 multichannel video recordings of consultations by 12 GPs; filmed using the ALFA (Aggregation of Log Files for Analysis) open-source toolkit. The start and end of silence was manually coded using an observational data capture tool. We report who initiates and terminates silence, describe the proportion of the consultation, what happens within it and the distribution of silent periods by quartile of the consultation. RESULTS: We found the median proportion of silence was 12.3% and interquartile range 14.3%. Silent periods (52.4%) were both initiated and terminated by the doctor. The majority of silent time (78.1%) is spent on computer-based activities and physical examination. Silent periods which do not involve physical examination mainly occur in the second half of the consultation and represent 70.6% of the total duration and 64.8% of the episodes of silence. CONCLUSIONS: The computer is a third party in the GP consultation and often requires silent time during doctor-computer interaction. Doctors' control and patients allow silence for the doctor to complete tasks often involving the computer and also for time out from the consultation. There is a clear pattern of when doctors need most to have silence and consultation models should be developed that reflect this need