Identification of EMR Hardware and Space Design Requirements using Human Factors Analyses

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are being implemented globally in the hope of improving patient care, provider coordination, documentation accuracy, and information availability. Numerous factors impact successful EMR implementation including usability, accessibility and unique characteristics of the sociotechnical system within which it will be used. This paper describes the application of human factors methods to support effective EMR implementation at one pediatric hospital. The focus is on the problem of hardware selection and placement – a topic that has not received much attention in the literature to date. The requirements gathering process for two outpatient clinics included a task and gap analysis of current clinic workflows that led to the identification of specific hardware and design recommendations supporting future EMR workflows. Lessons learned post-implementation and requirements associated with hospital wide practices were extrapolated to generate guiding principles that apply to EMR implementation in other outpatient clinics.