There are Certainly Some Important Truths Here!

The following appeared a day or so ago.

Docs struggle with slow clinical information systems

June 30, 2010 | Mike Miliard, Managing Editor

DETROIT – A new survey has found that nearly half of healthcare professionals are dissatisfied with their clinical information systems, frustrated by response times that can last a full minute, or even longer.

Compuware Corporation this week announced the findings of the study, which polled 99 healthcare professionals at large and small hospitals in the United States – including nurses, doctors, CMOs and CMIOs – to better understand the availability of their clinical information systems.

The survey examined the length of time it takes for clinicians to log in, and how often they're required to log in during an average work day.

It found that end-users of clinical information systems are not satisfied with the performance of those systems, and those who were satisfied are settling for less than acceptable response times.

Key findings include:

• Nearly 50 percent of respondents did not find response times acceptable.
• Sixty percent of respondents reported response times for a single log-in greater than 10 seconds, some as long as one minute or more.
• Nearly half of those who were satisfied with response times experienced lags greater than 11 seconds – and in some cases as high as 30 seconds – for a single log-in.
• A majority of respondents log onto their clinical information system more than 20 times each day.

More here:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/docs-struggle-slow-clinical-information-systems

I have to say all my anecdotal evidence and experience strongly supports these findings!

Under provisioning and  poor design that results in slow screen loads and screen flips is just anathema to busy professionals generally and to clinicians in particular.

The point about slow log-ins is a good one as it is this that causes people to remain logged in and to let others use the same session with obvious consequences for security, audit trails and the like.

The original press release can be found here:

http://www.compuware.com/d/press-release.asp?newsitemid=483469

Now, while this company has a vested commercial interest in the findings I don’t believe anyone can deny how important responsiveness and system availability are in the clinical environment.

David.