Attitudes of academic-based and community-based physicians regarding EMR use during outpatient encounters

Physician satisfaction with EMR implementations has been reported in a number of recent studies. Most of these have reported on implementation of an EMR in a uniform practice setting rather than comparing satisfaction with implementation between settings. Our objectives in this study were to: 1) compare and contrast the attitudes of academic-based and community-based primary care physicians toward EMR use 6 months after implementation, and 2) investigate some of the factors influencing their attitudes toward the EMR implementation. Although physicians in both settings regularly use computers, the academic-based physicians use computers for a wider range of activities. Both groups endorse improvements in quality and communication as well as concern over rapport with the patient and privacy. There is considerable discrepancy between the two settings in ratings of the impact on workflow, with the community-based physicians being much more positive about the EMR. Factors that may account for this discrepancy may include overall expectations of computer systems as well as different rates of adaptation to use of the system.