Do you have evidence of the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in Japan? Part3

This blog explores the literature review on evidence about the effectiveness of EHR in Japan since our EHR project aims to disseminate in the country.

I set the research topic as the “Effectiveness of the implementation of EHR in Japan”

#1; (((((electronic health record) OR (electronic health records)) OR (electronic medical record)) OR (electronic medical records)) OR (EHR)) OR (EMR)

#2; ((implementation) OR (introduction)) OR (deployment)

#3; ((effectiveness) OR (outcome)) OR (benefit)

#4; Japan

Having searched in Pubmed by these key terms; ＃1 AND #2 AND #3 AND #4,

I’ve found approximately 50 articles. From them, I listed the evaluated items as below:

The below were evaluated by questionnaires with 3 categories (improved/no change/worsened) (Inokuchi et al., 2014)

・The time required to access previous patient information

・The time required to share patient information

・The time for imaging and laboratory orders

・Medical safety

・The time for overall medical care

・The access to previous patient information

・Providing explanations to patients

・Sharing patient information with staff

These two were evaluated by questionnaires with several categories (Koide et al., 2006)

・The patient’s waiting time in outpatient settings

・The patient’s satisfaction

These two were evaluated by the observation of surveyors (Seto et al., 2014)

・The time required to provide patient care

・The time required to write medical records

This is evaluated by their consensus rules (Wakamiya and Yamauchi, 2013)

・The efficiency of staff work

This is evaluated by given equations (Kaneko et al., 2018)

・The labour productivity (LP) of the hospitals

・The multi-factor productivity (MFP) of the hospitals

Other

・A questionnaire about doctors and paramedical staff recognsed that the EMR system helped reduce the time needed to acquire patient information (Kurihara and Fujii, 2013)

Findings

Having looked at the evidence found in Japan most of the evaluated items are measured by questionnaires, with some being measured by surveyors. The evaluated items are mostly about the duration of time related to medical care.

References
1, Inokuchi, R., Sato, H., Nakamura, K., Aoki, Y., Shinohara, K., Gunshin, M., Matsubara, T., Kitsuta, Y., Yahagi, N., Nakajima, S., 2014. Motivations and barriers to implementing electronic health records and ED information systems in Japan. Am J Emerg Med 32, 725–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2014.03.035
2, Kaneko, K., Onozuka, D., Shibuta, H., Hagihara, A., 2018. Impact of electronic medical records (EMRs) on hospital productivity in Japan. Int J Med Inform 118, 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2018.07.008
3, Koide, D., Asonuma, M., Naito, K., Igawa, S., Shimizu, S., 2006. Evaluation of electronic health records from viewpoint of patients. Stud Health Technol Inform 122, 304–308.
4, Kurihara, Y., Fujii, H., 2013. Acquisition of patient information from nurses by other health professionals under electronic medical record implementation. Stud Health Technol Inform 192, 1025.
5, Seto, R., Inoue, T., Tsumura, H., 2014. Clinical documentation improvement for outpatients by implementing electronic medical records. Stud Health Technol Inform 201, 102–107.
6, Wakamiya, S., Yamauchi, K., 2013. Evaluation of electronic medical records for ophthalmology based on changes in staff work through introduction of electronization. Stud Health Technol Inform 192, 968.