Acceptance of direct physician access to a computer-based patient record in a managed care setting.

Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States has developed a fully integrated outpatient information system which currently runs on an IBM ES9000 on a VM platform written in MUMPS. The applications include Lab, Radiology, Transcription, Appointments. Pharmacy, Encounter tracking, Hospitalizations, Referrals, Phone Advice, Pap tracking, Problem list, Immunization tracking, and Patient demographics. They are department specific and require input and output from a dumb terminal. We have developed a physician's work station to access this information using PC compatible computers running Microsoft Windows and a custom Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 environment which draws from these 14 applications giving the physician a comprehensive view of all electronic medical records. Through rapid prototyping, voluntary participation, formal training and gradual implementation we have created an enthusiastic response. 95% of our physician PC users access the system each month. The use ranges from 0.2 to 3.0 screens of data viewed per patient visit. This response continues to drive the process toward still greater user acceptance and further practice enhancement.