The Application of Electronic Medical Record and Users' Satisfaction in Ophthalmology

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To introduce the electronic medical record (EMR) system used in the department of ophthalmology and to report improvements to be made and user satisfaction. METHODS: The EMR, used since October 15, 2004, was shown in several figures. Some problems were revealed on the figures and improved. The satisfaction results for the EMR's efficacy and quality of eye description compared to the paper chart were obtained from a questionnaire of twenty-one ophthalmologic residents who had at least 6 months of experience with EMR using 5-point Linkerd scale. RESULTS The EMR was shown to be useful in ophthalmology. Problems were solved by resizing the pictures automatically, introducing a convenient picture input method using an LCD tablet monitor system, and by minimizing the automatic fill-in system in ocular examination records. Twenty-one ophthalmologic residents replied, and the efficacy of EMR was satisfactory, scoring 2.6 on a 5-point Linkerd scale, whereas the complete and proper description of patients' information was unsatisfactory, scoring 3.6. CONCLUSIONS: The standardized ophthalmologic EMR and its easy and fast input device will improve ophthalmologists' satisfaction. EMR should be supplemented to make more proper and complete description of patients information.