“What’s the best way to document information concerning psychiatric patients? I just don’t know”—A qualitative study about recording psychiatric patients notes in the era of electronic health records

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study regarding the main attitudes and concerns of Swiss psychiatrists related to the utility, usability and acceptability of EHR and how they address the pitfalls of sharing sensitive information with other parties. A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Applied thematic analysis was used to identify themes with regard to participation. Three main themes were identified: 1) strengths of the use of EHR in the clinical context; 2) limitations of EHR; and 3) recommendations on preserving confidentiality in health records. The study shows variable practices of EHR use in psychiatric hospitals in Switzerland and a lack of standards on how to document sensitive information in EHR.