A Cognitive Walkthrough and Focus Group Study of Nursing Personnel to Improve EHRs Used in Nursing Homes

The use of electronic health records (EHRs) to support health care has dramatically increased in the past several years; however, the efficiency of these systems in supporting nursing personnel’s workflow remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is to examine nurses’ experiences using an EHR system and how nursing personnel evaluate the usability of the EHR system. Three focus group interviews and a cognitive walkthrough with four nurses were performed in the spring of 2010. A major finding was that the nursing personnel were satisfied overall with the implemented EHR system. The most commonly mentioned problems were lack of training and organizational challenges during implementation. Strategies to improve the efficiency of EHRs were reducing the amount of information displayed and the number of opportunities to perform a certain task in the system.