Evaluating the Effects of Electronic Health Records System Adoption on the Performance of Malaysian Health Care Providers

Abstract Background: The Ministry of Health of Malaysia has invested significant resources to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system to ensure the full automation of hospitals for coordinated care delivery. Thus, evaluating whether the system has been effectively utilized is necessary, particularly regarding how it predicts the post-implementation primary care providers’ performance impact. Methods: Convenience sampling was employed for data collection in three government hospitals for seven months. A standardized efficacy survey for EHR systems was administered to primary health care providers (specialists, medical officers, and nurses) as they participated in medical education programs. Empirical data were assessed by employing partial least squares-structural equation modeling for hypothesis testing.Results: The results demonstrated that knowledge quality had the highest score for predicting performance and had a large effect size, whereas system compatibility was the strongest component of system quality. The findings indicated that EHR systems supported the clinical tasks and workflows of care providers, which increased system quality, whereas increased quality of knowledge improved user performance. Conclusion: Given these findings, knowledge quality and effective use should be incorporated into the evaluation of EHR system efficacy in health institutions. Data mining features can be integrated into current systems for easily and systematically generating health populations and disease trend analysis, improving clinical knowledge of care providers and aiding in maintaining their productivity. The validated survey instrument can be further tested with empirical surveys in other public and private hospitals with different interoperable EHR systems.