Digitalization is sweeping every organization. Also in hospitals patients’ records go through a digitization process to become electronic healthcare record, (EHR).
Purpose – This study describe physicians and nurses perceptions towards digitization of their work practices. The overall questions is: What are the professionals’ perceptions on how to work with digitalized information systems?
Design/methodology/approach –The sample consisted of physicians (n=64) and nurses (n=261) working in a Swedish regional hospital. A standardized questionnaire was coupled with free-text options as well. The professionals’ perceptions of EHR were compared with the traditional paper-based records.
Findings – The professionals reacted with resistance and need more time and more well-developed systems to exercise their new skills. Competence to document in itself is not the problem. The problem is how to perform their new EHR work in daily practise. Communication problems between different systems become obvious. The study shows that performability is important when working with digitization in every day’s practises.
Practical implications – There are still shortcomings in the quality of the documentation in EHR. Redundant documentations have to be minimized. The communication between systems and information to patient have to be developed. It also important to have more and better work places for professionals’ possibility to perform their skills. Additionally, to increase their knowledge of digitization in healthcare the professionals need continuous training and time to discuss pros and cons with the digitization.