Many doctors don't get enough EMR training

How much training is needed to make a physician feel comfortable with an electronic medical record system? At least three to five days, according to a study.

But the study says nearly half of physicians receive three days or less. AmericanEHR Partners surveyed more than 2,300 physicians on their experiences with EMRs. A day is defined as a full workday away from patients.

Michael S. Barr, MD, senior vice president for medical practice, professionalism and quality at the American College of Physicians, said he hopes results from the survey will lead to better strategies for training physicians on new EMR systems. The ACP co-founded AmericanEHR Partners, an online resource designed to aid physicians with the selection and implementation of health information technology.

The survey found that physicians felt comfortable using basic EMR systems after three to five days of training. Those functions included:

• Maintaining an active medication allergy list.
• Maintaining an active medication list.
• Checking for drug interactions when prescribing a new medication.

For advanced EMR functions, such as importing medication lists from outside sources, it took at least a week of training for physicians to feel comfortable.

More than 4% of the physicians surveyed said they received no initial training, and more than half of the doctors were in practices with three or fewer physicians. But those in one- to three-physician practices also accounted for 118 of the 270 physicians who received more than two weeks of training.

The survey was conducted with the ACP, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Assn. of Medical Informatics, the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Renal Physicians Assn.