Physicians' Perspective of Secure Electronic Messaging in Small Office-Based Patient Practices

Electronic messaging is an important tool that helps engage patients in their health care delivery process. Many studies have evaluated the advantages and outcomes of patient electronic messaging from the patients' perspective. However, not many studies were conducted to understand or elaborate on the impact of patient electronic messaging on the workflow and workload of the physicians working in smaller practices. The study was intended to know the impact of patient secure electronic messaging as a component of Health Information Exchange (HIE) systems on physicians' workflow and workload in small office-based patient practices, and factors that can encourage the adoption and usage of patient electronic secure messaging by physicians in practices where there is not adequate staff for patient scheduling or nurses to help with refill requests or provisions for filtering patient electronic messages. Participants of the survey included thirty physicians specializing in Internal medicine, Pediatrics and Family medicine. Study results indicated that patient electronic messaging is adversely affecting physicians' workflow and workload in small office based patient practices.