This article was first published in the Winter 2021 issue of Critical Connections.
 
Chaos—That is the word that comes to mind when Smith Heavner, BSN, MS, RN, PCCN, thinks about electronic health records (EHRs). And he is not alone. In 2019, a joint study by researchers at Stanford University, the Mayo Clinic, and the American Medical Association found that healthcare professionals graded EHRs with an F for usability.¹ The researchers conducted a survey, to which more than 5000 physicians responded, giving EHRs a usability score of 45%.1 In contrast, in a similar study, Google received a usability score of 93%, while ATMs, GPS, and Microsoft Excel all fared better (82%, 71%, and 57%, respectively) by comparison.¹
 
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