ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS NEEDS FROM THE PSYCHIATRY POINT OF VIEW: THE RESULT OF A 18 MONTH IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This case report presents the perceived benefits and limitations for patient care of an electronic health record (EHR) system implemented at a tertiary psychiatric institution. The information collection period began with training of users at the beginning of the implementation until 18 months post-implementation. Perceived benefits were related to administrative aspects and information sharing among the healthcare team. Some specialized psychiatric processes were not supported by the system, which limited the benefits for research and specialized patient care. Functioning as a best practice it is therefore necessary to evaluate the EHR system regarding its capacity to support specific processes of this particular medical specialty.