Quality Assessment Model of EHR Software in Family Medicine Practices : Approach Based on User Satisfaction

Today, worldwide we can find a few measurement models for assessing the quality and certification of the EHR systems. Particularly, prominent are American certification programs and European quality labeling models. None of these models are compulsory for use in the wider area, nor do they include an assessment of all essential important software functionalities. In case of Croatian healthcare system, actual certification criteria are still based solely on the necessary legislative or communication criteria. Other important functionalities remain uneven and largely left to the will of the software developers. The situation is mostly similar in other European countries. The objective of this study was to develop a novel and comprehensive assessment model for evaluation of the functionalities of the EHR software for managing family medicine practices based on current world standards, models and projects, as well as on actual user satisfaction and their requirements. Resulting novel model could be used to assess the user perceived quality of almost all forms of the ambulatory EHR software and therefore useful to all stakeholders in this area of the healthcare informatization.