Towards Lean EHR Usability Heuristics for Behavioral Health Providers

Abstract

This thesis research sought to determine whether Lean principles and practices make applicable heuristics for evaluating electronic health record (EHR) usability for behavioral health providers. Over the past 10, years EHRs have quickly become part of standard practice in health care yet there is serious concern regarding their direct impact on provider efficiency, job satisfaction and burnout. A review of the literature highlights a notable lack of content regarding the EHR usability needs of behavioral health providers. I utilized contextual inquiry and qualitative analysis to identify the EHR usability needs of behavioral health providers. Furthermore, my research followed a validated domain-specific usability heuristic development methodology to attempt to establish Lean heuristics. The results of this study formed a set of EHR usability heuristics for behavioral health providers. Findings concluded that Lean principles and practices contributed significantly to specific and applicable rules in the resulting heuristics to improve EHR usability.