[International experiences with electronic health records in the hospital sector]

Vast amounts of resources have been invested in electronic health records (EHRs) to improve productivity, quality and patient safety. Systematic reviews of the current empirical research into the effects of EHR systems show that the hopes and promises of digitisation are largely unrealised. As pointed out in this review, there are several possible reasons for these disappointing results, including bad systems design, inappropriate configuration, poor organisational implementation and too little focus on complementary innovations. Realising the potentials of EHRs calls for longstanding efforts from multiple stakeholders.