Evaluating the Usability of the OpenVista Electronic Health Record EHR

In the midst of pressing demands for viable Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology, Medsphere OpenVista offers a Graphical User Interface (GUI) system that strives to provide such technology across a variety of healthcare organizations and settings. While the overall structure and function of OpenVista may improve overall performance, in terms of cost reduction, clinical performance, and patient care outcomes, there is still much room for improvement in OpenVista's user interface. Via the application of user interface design methods and techniques, recommendations for the overall improvement of the OpenVista Patient Summary screen were made and a low-fidelity prototype was created. The goal of the new patient summary screen was to create a user environment that will optimize user performance via reduction of time spent acquiring data, improving the ease of data acquisition, and clarity of data. The two patient summary screens were compared via a KLM analysis and the low-fidelity prototype screen was found to increase ease of use and efficiency. Specifically, OpenVista required, on average, 60% more mental operations and 31% more time per task than the prototype. Consequently, while EHRs are quite valuable, poor design can lead to extensive usability issues amongst both novice and expert users. While OpenVista is quite prevalent amongst many hospitals utilizing EHRs, there is still much room for improvement.