The negative impact of interface design, customizability, inefficiency, malfunctions, and information retrieval on user experience: A national usability survey of ICU clinical information systems in Finland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104680Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Usability is a contextual property and should always be evaluated in relation to a specific context of use.

  • Intensivists’ user experience and expectations of clinical information systems in ICUs are unknown.

  • Overall, there is moderate satisfaction with the main ICU clinical information system used.

  • Poor interface design was the most common factor negatively affecting user experience.

Abstract

Introduction

Clinical information systems (CISs) used in intensive care units (ICU) integrate large amounts of patient data every minute, and from multiple systems and devices. Intensive care requires efficient use of information technology to acquire, synchronize, integrate, and analyze data in order to make quick decisions and implement interventions in a timely manner.

Objectives

To identify factors affecting poor user experience (UX) of CISs used in ICUs in Finland.

Methods

Data from national Electronic Health Record (EHR) and user experience survey was undertaken in 2017. Those, who used the ICU CIS on a daily or weekly basis were asked supplementary questions and, therefore, comprise a subset of the responses reported in this article.

Results

On a 4–10 scale (i.e., “Fail” to “Excellent”), the mean ‘grade’ for the principally used ICU CIS was 6.9 (SD 1.3) points. Of the respondents, 119 (57%) were categorized as having good UX. The factors identified as affecting poor UX of the ICU CISs related to poor interface design (OR 7.8; 95% CIs 12.5–24.1; p = 0.001), insufficient customizability (OR 7.2; 95% CIs 1.7–30.6; p = 0.008), the inefficiency of performing routine tasks (OR 4.3; 95% CIs 1.0–18.2; p = 0.044), malfunctions (OR 3.5; 95% CIs 1.2–9.6; p = 0.019), and difficulties in information retrieval (OR 3.0; 95% CIs 1.0–8.8; p = 0.044). The most commonly reported usability problems with the main EHR system and ICU CISs were also identified.

Conclusions

Overall satisfaction with the principally used ICU CIS was moderate. However, the overall grades varied significantly. Poor interface design, insufficient customizability, inefficiency, malfunctions, and difficulties in information retrieval all affect poor UX.

Keywords

Clinical information systems
Intensive care
User experience
UX

Cited by (0)