Objective: To assess ambulatory providers’ confidence in learning about and using the electronic health record (EHR).

Materials and Methods: Providers were administered an EHR skills self-assessment survey.

Results: 71 providers participated. Only 35% of respondents felt that they had strong EHR skills, 92% felt confident that they could learn new skills, and 90% felt they could improve with practice. 45% of faculty physicians felt confident that they could use the EHR in a time-efficient manner and 52% felt could keep up with advances but 16% felt apprehensive about using the EHR. 94% of faculty would welcome opportunities to learn more.

Discussion: Most providers viewed using the EHR as a clinical skill they could master with training and practice.

Conclusion: Physicians may be engaged by EHR training programs that focus on the use of the EHR as a clinical skill. This work has informed new training programs at our institution.

Data was collected by survey, on paper or via Google Survey. 

The "Top 10 Score" was calculated and compiled by the author from Epic Provider Efficiency Data.

Any potentially identifying information has been removed.

Survey results range from 1 to 5 with 1 equal to strongly disagree and 5 equal to strongly agree.