User perspectives on the usability of a regional health information exchange.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the usability of a health information exchange (HIE) in a densely populated metropolitan region. This grant-funded HIE had been deployed rapidly to address the imminent needs of the patient population and the need to draw wider participation from regional entities. DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals given access to the HIE at participating organizations and examined some of the usability and usage factors related to the technology acceptance model. MEASUREMENTS: We probed user perceptions using the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction, an author-generated Trust scale, and user characteristic questions (eg, age, weekly system usage time). RESULTS: Overall, users viewed the system favorably (ratings for all usability items were greater than neutral (one-sample Wilcoxon test, p<0.0014, Bonferroni-corrected for 35 tests). System usage was regressed on usability, trust, and demographic and user characteristic factors. Three usability factors were positively predictive of system usage: overall reactions (p<0 0.01), learning (p<0.05), and system functionality (p<0.01). Although trust is an important component in collaborative relationships, we did not find that user trust of other participating healthcare entities was significantly predictive of usage. An analysis of respondents' comments revealed ways to improve the HIE. CONCLUSION: We used a rapid deployment model to develop an HIE and found that perceptions of system usability were positive. We also found that system usage was predicted well by some aspects of usability. Results from this study suggest that a rapid development approach may serve as a viable model for developing usable HIEs serving communities with limited resources.

Showing Your Work: Impact of annotating electronic prescriptions with decision support results.

e-Prescribing systems with decision support do not routinely communicate an adequate amount of information regarding the prescribers' decision to pharmacists. To address this communication gap in the e-prescribing process, we implemented a system called Show Your Work (SYW) that appends alerts and override comments to e-prescriptions generated by an e-prescribing system. To assess the quantitative impact of this system, we conducted a randomized, double-blinded, controlled study to assess pharmacy callback rates and types, and to uncover any unintended consequences of the annotations. Each day, SYW output across the enterprise was turned "on" or "off" randomly for all e-prescriptions. A convenience sample of three pharmacies, blinded to SYW status, submitted callback logs each day. These logs were used to calculate the rate of and reason for callbacks. At the conclusion of the study, we surveyed the 50 most frequently used pharmacies in our area to assess the impact of SYW on satisfaction and communication. A total of 202 callbacks had occurred yielding a callback rate of 45 callbacks/1000 prescriptions for SYW "on" days and 40 callbacks/1000 prescriptions for "off" days (p=0.4). We received 38 surveys (76% response rate) with 33 respondents commenting about SYW. Most respondents agreed (69%) that SYW favorably impacted callbacks--especially with pediatric prescriptions (82%). Comments suggested that SYW increased callbacks where necessary and decreased them in other situations, but did not contribute to unnecessary callbacks. These findings support the continued and potentially expanded use of SYW by e-prescribing systems to enhance communication with pharmacists.