Explaining the Barriers and Deficiencies of a Family Physician Program Based on Electronic Health Record: A Qualitative Research

Electronic health record is electronic data of “entire life of a person” registered by healthcare providers and shared in different health centers. The electronic health record has been announced to all medical universities of the country since March 2016 by launching the Integrated Health System (SIB). This study explains the barriers and shortcomings of the family physician program based on electronic health records in Guilan University of Medical Sciences. 

this qualitative content analysis study  with a  purposefull sampling  was conducted until data saturation time; Experiences and viewpoint of 15 assistants of health networks, Authorities of Health networks development, family physicians and expert of information security of University were collected through individual interview and notes in 2019-2020. Data were entered into MAXQDA software and the process of analysis (repeated reading and coding) was performed.

Findings were extracted in the form of five main categories including constraints: Structure and manpower, insufficient skills of planners and service providers, internal and external coordination, web-based system and related equipment, budgets with several subcategories.

In order to improve the quality of the implementation of the family physician program, which aims to provide health care to the covered population, the use of electronic health records can be institutionalized with the objectives of the family physician program by eliminating the identified shortcomings.