Physician and Parent Perspectives on Psychosocial and Emotional Data Entry in the Electronic Medical Record in a Pediatric Setting

OBJECTIVE: This pilot study was conducted to evaluate physician and patient preferences for documentation of emotional and psychosocial information in the electronic medical record (EMR). METHODS: Pediatricians from an academic medical center and parents of patients in an academic pediatric rheumatology practice were surveyed on 10 different elements using Likert-type scale items (1 = not at all important, 10 = extremely important). The importance of the proposed categories was evaluated by means testing and pairwise comparisons of the responses. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 45 physicians and 35 parents. The overall mean scores for physicians and parents were 7.70 and 7.44, respectively. Scores on personality, friends, and school differed between physicians and parents, but those differences were not significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons (P = .13, .17, and .26, respectively). Fears, special requests, and special needs were in the high-score group for both physicians and parents. CONCLUSION: Physicians and parents reported that the incorporation of emotional and psychosocial information into the EMR added value to the health care of children.