User Centric to Address EHR Usability with New Service Offering

Responding to negative impacts on clinician productivity and low adoption rates of Health IT (HIT), User Centric, Inc. announces a new service offering specifically for health care organizations (HCOs): Interface Productivity Evaluation™. “Many clinicians are struggling to adopt EHRs because they are too time-consuming to use or do not adequately support the way clinical workflow actually happens,” says Wendy Yee, Ph.D., Director. “The usability of EHRs, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), ePrescribing, and Practice Management all affect the productivity of clinical staff and HCOs.”

Interface Productivity Evaluation™ seeks to improve clinician efficiency and effectiveness using HIT by understanding how clinicians and their staff actually use the healthcare applications. Interface Productivity Evaluation™ provides:

• Detailed insights from on-site observations and interviews of clinical staff using HIT applications
• User performance metrics for various the user interfaces across clinical and staff roles
• Criteria-based interface evaluation
• Analysis of how effectively the installed technology supports clinical and staff productivity
• Specific recommendations for improving and streamlining the user-interface based on observed clinical workflow

“In our research, we've found that usability and low adoption rates are major challenges being addressed at many HCOs. Reductions in workflow efficiency, staff frustration, and concerns about user errors associated with EHR applications are commonly reported,” says Wendy Yee, Director. “Our process uses carefully calibrated methods for measuring, analyzing, and improving clinical team productivity by addressing the EHR user interface. On-site observations allow us to gather critical data - not opinion - on how well each system supports clinical workflow, which we translate to interface recommendations for improving productivity.”

User Centric's recently published white paper entitled “How to Select an Electronic Health Record System that Health Care Professionals Can Use” demonstrates how usability and user experience can be integrated into the selection of EHRs.

For more information about this new service, contact Robert Schumacher, 630-320-3900 or visit User Centric at HIMSS 2009 (www.himss.org) in Chicago - Booth #3382.

About HIMSS

Founded in 1961, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care. www.himss.org

About User Centric, Inc.

User Centric is a global consulting firm that focuses on improving user experience. We apply our expertise to projects involving handhelds, web sites, software, medical devices, print, packaging, and telephony services. Experience, quality, value, global reach and outstanding client services set us apart. Our services include user research, user interface design consulting, information architecture, usability testing, user interface evaluations, eye tracking, and online surveys. Learn more about us at www.UserCentric.com.