Many applications on the market add burdens to overworked providers.
A growing concern in the field of healthcare is the physician burnout epidemic. In the midst of a shortage of healthcare
providers, many find themselves overwhelmed by various stresses originating from wasted time, feelings of inefficacy,
tedious work, spiking costs, and growing training commitments. The negative effects are
quite drastic, as they involve a general degradation in the ability of a physician to give the best quality to patients as
well as the personal well being of these providers.
Among other factors contributing to physician burnout is the lack of user-friendly technologies. One
poll found that 7 in 10 of physicians
said EHR increased daily work hours, took away valuable time from patients, and above all, worsened burnout.These feelings are quite
understandable given the dated interfaces of many EHR where it takes many clicks to access the most critical patient information.
Beyond simply EHR, providers find the lack of compatibility to be the strongest deterrent
of adopting new health IT products. The intense time and financial commitments required to make new health technologies compatible
with existing legacy systems have a strong likelihood of intensifying burnout. Even after implementation, many may find themselves
with greater demands for entry of manual data to actually make these new services work.