Measuring clinicians' expectations prior to EHR implementation

To measure user expectations and knowledge of the issues involved in the transition from a paper-based system to an EHR, we created an on-line questionnaire, and invited physicians from several specialties at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) to respond to it. As expected, most participants had positive expectations for the EHR and its features, but respondents were more skeptical of electronic clinical decision support systems (CDSS) than we had expected. The responses of this "EHR-naïve" group of physicians underscore the importance of managing expectations with the implementation of the EHR and of the delicate balance involved in preserving physician independence when proposing a clinical decision support system.