Comparative Analysis of Three Surveys on Primary Care Providers’ Experiences with Interoperability and Electronic Health Records

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThis study compared primary care physicians’ self-reported experiences with Electronic Health Records’ (EHR) interoperability, as reported across three surveys: the 2022 Continuous Certification Questionnaire (CCQ) from the American Board of Family Medicine, the 2022 University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) Physician Health IT Survey, and the 2021 National Electronic Health Records Survey (NEHRS).Materials and MethodsWe used descriptive analyses to identify differences between survey pairs. To account for weighting in NEHRS and UCSF, we assessed the significance of differences using the Rao-Scott corrected chi-square test.ResultsCCQ received 3,991 responses, UCSF received 1,375 from primary care physicians, and NEHRS received 858 responses from primary care physicians. Response rates were 100%, 3.6%, and 18.2%, respectively. Substantial and largely statistically significant differences in response were detected across the three surveys. For instance, 22.2% of CCQ respondents said it was very easy to document care in their EHR, compared to 15.2% in NEHRS, and 14.8% in the UCSF survey. Approximately one-third of respondents across surveys said documenting care in their EHR was somewhat or very difficult. The surveys captured different respondent types with CCQ respondents trending younger, and NEHRS respondents more likely to be in private practice.DiscussionAll surveys pointed to room for improvement in EHR usability and interoperability. The differences observed, likely driven by differences in survey methodology and response bias, were likely substantial enough to impact policy decisions.ConclusionDiversified data sources, such as those from specialty boards, may aid in capturing physicians’ experiences with EHRs and interoperability.