Interprofessional practice and teamwork are crucial components of patient care in a complex medical setting. For a study, researchers sought to locate, characterize, and assess studies that examined the impact of electronic health records (EHRs) or modification/enhancement to an EHR on interprofessional practice in a hospital context. About 7 databases were searched until November 2021, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, and the ACM Digital Library. Investigators conducted subject heading and title/abstract searches using the following search terms: “interprofessional,” “electronic health records,” and “hospital, staff.” No date limits were applied. The search resulted in 5,400 papers; after removing duplicates, 3,255 were left for title/abstract screening. The study incorporated 17 studies that met the inclusion criteria.
The risk of bias was evaluated using the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs. A narrative synthesis of the data was prepared based on the type of intervention and outcome measures, including communication, coordination, collaboration, and teamwork. The vast majority of published works were observational studies of poor quality. Few studies have examined cooperation or teamwork, with the majority focusing on the effects of communication and coordination. Compared to studies studying EHR upgrades, which yielded predominantly positive benefits (20/28 outcomes; 71%), studies examining the EHR had predominantly negative or no influence on interprofessional practice (24/31 outcomes; 74%). Common principles highlighted throughout the trials yielded mixed results: information sharing, information visibility, closed-loop feedback, decision assistance, and workflow disturbance. On all outcomes of interprofessional practice, the EHR and EHR enhancements had mixed impacts; however, EHR enhancements had greater favorable benefits than the EHR alone. Few EHR research has examined the influence on collaboration and teamwork.
Source:www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0042-1748855
