Needs Assessment for Functionalities in Electronic Health Record Systems in General Hospitals

As an electronic health record system is implementing in Korean health care sectors, concerns about key functionalities of electronic health record systems are increasing. The purpose of this study was to identify core functions and set the priority in electronic health record systems under the Korean contexts in order to assure and improve the quality of the systems. Methods: A survey was conducted using questionnaire developed by the study team based on literature review. The subjects were medical record administrators working at medical record department in general hospitals. Results: The response rate was 59.8%(55/92). The functions which more than ninety percent of subjects responded as necessary right now and/or in near future related to 'drug alert', 'clinical guideline', 'chronic disease management', 'automated real-time surveillance', 'coded data', 'result reporting', 'de-identifying data', 'disease registry', and 'provider-provider communication and connectivity'. Conclusion: The results showed the high prioritized functions were decision support and health information/data management.