Migrating from One Comprehensive Commercial EHR to Another: Perceptions of Front-line Clinicians and Staff

As healthcare organizations continue to grow and evolve, migrations from one commercial electronic health record (EHR) system to another are likely to become more common. However, little is known about front-line clinicians' and staff's perceptions of such changes. Our study addresses this gap through an organization-wide survey of employees immediately prior to the transition to a new commercial EHR. We found that almost all front-line clinicians and staff were aware of the upcoming migration, and that most felt positive or neutral about the change, with only about 11% indicating that they were uncomfortable with the migration. Reasons for discomfort included the beliefs that the new EHR will be more time consuming to use and that moving to a new EHR is too costly, as well as concerns about the migration process. Attitudes differed by demographic characteristics and satisfaction with the current EHR. We discuss the implications of these results.