The Feasibility of Implementing Electronic Medical Records From the Staff’s Perspective of ‎Ferdows Teaching and Medical Hospitals in 2021‎

Nowadays, the application of computers and technology in various industries, including the care industry, has greatly expanded. Due to the need for accurate and correct information, the use of such systems as electronic health records and hospital information systems, in the health industry, has increased. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the possibility of implementation of electronic medical records in teaching and medical hospitals of the Ferdows city (South of Khorasan, Iran) from the perspective of the hospital's staff in 2021.

The present study is descriptive and analytical. The research population was the staff of the teaching and therapeutic hospitals of Ferdows City. In this study, the census method was used and the research community was considered as the research sample. The tool of data collection is the governor's questionnaire, which consists of two parts of Awareness and standards required for the implementation of electronic medical records. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire have been evaluated in previous studies. However, the reliability of the tool was re-examined in the present study and its internal correlation was found to be 92% with Cronbach's alpha method. Finally, the collected data were entered into SPSS version 16 and analyzed with descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney test.

78 hospital staff participated in the research. The awareness of the research community about electronic medical record was high and both hospitals were well prepared for the establishment of electronic medical records. The average compliance with technical, organizational, human, and legal requirements in two hospitals was 2.07, 2.04, 2.19, and 2.42, respectively. Among the examined requirements, the legal and organizational requirements were the highest and the lowest in the hospitals, respectively. In terms of the presence of requirements, no significant difference was observed between the average scores of electronic medical records.

Considering the relative readiness of the educational and therapeutic hospitals of Ferdows City for establishing electronic medical records and the high awareness of employees regarding this system, it is suggested that the managers and supervisors of the hospitals take the necessary measures and plan this direction.