Evaluating the Technical Infrastructure of Electronic Health Record System (SEPAS)

Background: Electronic Health Record (EHR) contains all information concerning individuals’ health including their outpatient, inpatient, and emergency visits. For successful implementation of this system in the complex healthcare environment, the technical and non-technical factors affecting its implementation should be identified and the barriers should be eliminated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the technical infrastructures of EHR in Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in teaching hospitals in Zahedan and Kerman, Iran in 2015. Data were collected using a researcher-made checklist developed through multiple discussion sessions with technical officers of EHR in medical universities and based on the results of previous studies. The validity of the checklist was confirmed by six health information management and medical informatics professionals. Data were analyzed by calculation of scores, frequency, and percentage for technical infrastructure using SPSS 16. Results: In the studied hospitals, the software infrastructure gained a score of 5.75 out of 11, and the hardware-software infrastructure a score of 20.1 out of 23.Teaching hospitals in Kerman had more hardware equipment including 258 clients, 15 access points, 2 switches, as compared to hospitals in Zahedan. Conclusion: The evaluated hospitals had a fairly favorable software infrastructure and a favorable hardware-software infrastructure. The same process is not followed for the selection and purchase of hardware equipment, and hospitals with more hardware equipment can send more patients’ records to EHR. The tool developed in this study can be used to evaluate the technical infrastructure of EHR at the national level.