The Ability of Educational Hospitals Affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences in Establishment of Electronic Medical Records

Development of information and communication technology led to enormous changes in different areas. In the health sector, the use of efficient information technology and information systems to achieve the goals of efficiency, effectiveness, service quality and patient satisfaction is an undeniable necessity. One of these technologies is electronic medical records system. This study aimed to investigate and compare the educational hospitals of Uemia University of Medical Sciences in case of organizational and to establish electronic medical records. The study is a descriptive cross-sectional study that periodically was conducted in 2012. The study population consisted of 98 senior and central managers of hospitals. In this study population census was used and all of the population were considered as the sample. A questionnaire contains two sections was used for data collection. The first section was to determine level of awareness and the second section was to check the requirements related to organizational standards required for implementation of electronic medical records. Validity and reliability were assessed and the data was analyzed by SPSS statistical software. Of the five hospitals in the study, samples awareness in hospitals was assessed as moderate. In terms of organizational requirements, there was no significant difference between the mean of Electronic Medical Records between hospitals studied. Out of 5 hospitals, in terms of organizational standard requirement of EMR, the hospital «F», «A» and «C» is more prepared than hospitals «B» and «D» for the implementation of electronic medical records. However, the implementation of electronic medical records, increases health care quality, patient safety and patient care and also decreases health costs. So it is suggested that hospitals do necessary efforts to establish electronic medical records.