Usability analysis and design principles

Usability Analysis

Human health is delicate and working in fields that deal with such aspect requires the utmost sensitivity and accuracy among other positive elements. The modern world is, characterized by widespread use of computerized equipment. The ability of these devices and functions to present professional with the required positive features is very apparent. The use of these devices in the medical field comes in a variety of aspects, say in the use of Electronic Health Records. This evolving idea, constituting a structured assortment of electronic health information on populations or individual patients, have, exposed some patients to medical risks, rather than facilitation the solution to problems. The accuracy of this feature, as opposed to expectations, is not a guarantee. The case in which a Primary Care Physician (CPC), presents a wrong prescription to a patient leading to a near fatal prescription overdose constitute an example of the danger that the failure of these electronic systems can cause in the medical scenario. These problems emanate from issues with the design of the applications and therefore changes to these designs can help eliminate the errors. As presented in this discussion, Electronic Health Records Usability Analysis serves as an avenue for the elimination of these errors.

How EHR Usability Errors Affect Patient Safety and Care

Usability of Electronic Health Records relates to the efficiency and effectiveness together with the satisfaction with which the systems permit different users to achieve different sets of tasks within the medical environment. EHR usability has implications on the quality of care that medical practitioners have institutions presents to patients in addition to influencing patient safety especially in emergencies. When these systems fall short of the usability test, they cause medical errors and this can be a factor of many triggers for instance system design. Usability errors in EHR affect the quality of patient care and safety in a variety of dimensions. In medical facilities, the large volume of patients, rapid turnover, and large patient's disparities call for the use of devices with the capacity to handle all these features at the same time and so, the EHR is supposed to take care of this. One of the inefficiencies that these systems have is the inability of feedback mechanisms over the safety issues that emerge in the systems. Because of this shortcoming, which relates to lack of certification, medical practitioners are not able to find avenues for making designers the areas of safety concerns associated with the application of the tools.

The design of these systems has also failed to take care of the extensively intricate information needs in the health sectors. The needs, which have financial, clinical, operations and administrative characteristics, differ from one environment to the other. The design of the software therefore, needs to take care of the needs of diverse clinical groups and demands. Because of the lack of this capability, the EHR, the medical who frequently move from one work environment to the other feel the inconveniences. This translates to their ineffectiveness in offering their patients the appropriate kind of care. The lack of these systems hinders effective testing, diagnosis and prescriptions to patients. In the case provided, the wrong prescription that the patient in question used may have to be because of the pharmacist incapability to use a system in a different setting or the lack of feedback mechanisms and capabilities among other inefficiencies.

Changing the Design to Prevent Errors In The Future

Considering that the majority of errors that occur in the EHR are design related, the need for a change in the design of these tools is evident. These changes ought to complement the existing issues of design in the system with the view of dealing with the problems that emerges with from these design inefficiencies. With reference to the issues of system feedback, the design of these systems ought to institute a forgiveness and feedback structure. This will provide room for users of the system to explore them with the view of improving them. In addition, it eliminates the fear that some disastrous results and accidental cost may occur during the exploration process. A good feedback mechanism is also significant in informing users of the effects of the activities they undertake within the system prior to those actions. Moreover, these facilitate the recovery of blunders and restore confidence in making certain that their actions have had the intended outcome.

In addition to the enhancement of feedback capabilities, the design of the systems should promote effective use of language where the terms applied in the systems not ambiguous but rather concise. This would prevent scenarios where diverse and confusing responses emerge whenever users give instructions to the systems. Coupled with this, the design ought to encourage efficient interactions by limiting the steps that users require in completing a task. Using flexible features in the designs of the different clinical scenario is a means of for ensuring that the practitioners, whose mobile nature, limits them with respect to the use of these systems is also important. The design of EHR's should take into consideration the existence of different and wide ranging information needs and the special features that these needs have and the different aspects that can help fulfil the needs. As such, all systems should provide room for the different practitioner and users to switch to the modes that work best for them and thus produce the best and most intended results.

Recommendations to Correct the Problem In The Future

The process of innovation and improvement of all products, Informatics Systems included. Dealing with the errors that associate with EHR's and whose capacity to interfere with the quality and safety of patients is massive, requires that appropriate research is instituted in establishing and providing evidence of the issues. This will pave way for the establishment of ways of solving the problems of usability and providing high quality safety and care to the patients. Aspects of research with respect to this include, asking the users the kind of problems they face with the system, establishing the benefits they would like to source from the system and making inquiry over the changes that they believe the system design requires to have. The other measure that would help achieve this goal is the design of a central hub, managed by a trusted institution to serve as a linkage to a variety of data sources. This hub would also act as a link to other evaluation websites and other ratings. Having such a central server would make monitoring and establishing errors that occur in the different systems easier as more eyes that are watchful would give attention and contribute to the system.