Bridging the Generation Gap: The Reality of EMR Implementation

Objectives:Assess the attitude of academic otolaryngology faculty members toward a new electronic medical record (EMR) and determine the impact of implementation on their perspectives.Methods:A longitudinal survey study was conducted from December 2013 to June 2013 at an academic medical center. All otolaryngology and audiology faculty members were serially administered an online, 10-question survey assessing their attitudes toward implementation of a new EMR system. These surveys were completed 3 months prior and 1 and 3 months after implementation. Basic demographic information was also collected.Results:Thirty faculty members completed all 3 surveys. Compared with respondents over 40 years old, those under 40 years reported being more comfortable with computers (P = .035). Prior to implementation, respondents under 40 years were statistically more likely to believe that the new EMR documentation would be both more efficient (P = .018) and higher quality (P = .030). However, by the end of the study the ...