A SURVEY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS IMPLEMENTATION IN TEACHING HOSPITALS AFFLIATED TO URMIA UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Nowadays, increasing of health information production caused application of
new technologies in terms of utilization of information in this area. Electronic Medical Record (EMR),
an example of such technologies, is a well known and valuable system to access patient information in
hospitals. EMR is an electronic form of medical records which available through a network to achieve
primary goals of health care. The aim of this research is to identify and compare the status of teaching
hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences in terms of manpower in order to
implement electronic medical record.
Materials & Methods: The present descriptive analytic cross – sectional study was carried out in
2011. The research population included 98 top and middle managers of the hospitals namely chief and
administrator of the hospitals, director of Nursing Services, educational and clinical supervisors, head
of wards, administrative and financial authorities, IT Officer, medical record staff, and officials in
charge of all treatment and diagnostic (laboratory, radiology and pharmacy) departments. Census
method was used in this study. A questionnaire with two sections was used for data collection. The
first section was to determine the level of awareness and the second section was to check the
requirements related to required standards for implementation of EMR. Validity and reliability of the
questionnaire was evaluated, and SPSS software was used for data analysis.
Results: At all the 5 hospitals, the knowledge of the participants was at moderate level. In addition, in
terms of manpower standard requirement of EMR, two hospitals were in appropriate status and one
hospital was in moderate level.
Conclusion: Out of 5 hospitals, in terms of manpower standard requirement of EMR, two hospitals
were in appropriate status and one hospital was in moderate level. Implementation of EMR caused to
increase quality of health care, patient safety and speed of deal with patients. It would also lead to
reduce health cost. Therefore, it is highly recommended that hospitals should try to prepare necessary
interventions to establish EMR