Actualization of Electronic Health Records Affordances: An Empirical Investigation of Users’ Personal and Behavioral Antecedents

Abstract

The healthcare industry is shifting from motivating use of electronic health record (EHR) systems to promoting effective use of EHR systems as measured by patient care outcomes. This underpins the importance of understanding the process of actualizing the EHR affordances and learning how to motivate healthcare providers’ use of EHR systems toward improving patient care. This study conceptualizes the process of perception and actualization of EHR affordances by drawing on the theory of affordances. We hypothesize and empirically investigate the role of user characteristics and patterns of use of EHR toward actualization of EHR affordances. To that end, we analyzed two-wave data collected from 91 healthcare professionals in an outpatient primary care clinic. Our findings support all the hypotheses. Our post-hoc analysis further shows the impact of different job roles on patterns of use of the EHR system. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.