[Electronic medical records in somatic hospitals--availability and clinical use].
BACKGROUND
Despite the fact that 53 out of 72 Norwegian hospitals (as of January 2001) have introduced electronic medical records systems (EMR), very few evaluation or comparisons between such systems have been published.


METHODS
We developed a questionnaire for physicians with items on computer literacy, use of electronic medical records and user satisfaction that was sent in January 2001 to 314 hospital physicians. 227 physicians responded (72%). Details about local system implementation were collected through telephone interviews with key IT personnel in each hospital.


RESULTS
EMR functions were available for a total of 15 out of 23 tasks listed in our questionnaire. The majority of physicians used EMR for between two and seven tasks that mainly covered reading patient data, though respondents scored highly on computer literacy (72.2/100).


CONCLUSIONS
There is a substantial discrepancy between the reported use of EMR systems and the functions available in the systems. The causes are not known, but lack of computer literacy is a less probable cause.
Laerum
Hallvard
H
Institutt for bein- og leddlidelser Det medisinske fakultet Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet Kreftbygget St. Olavs Hospital 7006 Trondheim. hallvard.larum@medisin.ntnu.no
Ellingsen
Gunnar
G
Faxvaag
Arild
A
D001292:Attitude to Computers; D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends; D003197:Computer Literacy; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009664:Norway; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires