A Micro-analysis Approach in Understanding Electronic Medical Record Usage in Rural Communities: Comparison of Frequency of Use on Performance Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In strengthening eHealth in the Philippines to support the universal health care (UHC) law, the scaling up and full adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems was strategically scheduled and supposedly completed in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, delayed these strengthening efforts. We wanted to assess the status of EMR adoption in primary clinics of rural health units (RHUs) and understand the frequency of use, particularly during the pandemic. Through analyses of EMR usage logs from selected RHUs in 2020, we estimated frequency of EMR usage based on duration of use and tested if this was influenced by the performing RHU and pandemic event. We also determined the most frequent EMR activities through process maps and tested if there were differences in the conduct of these activities before and during the pandemic. Results showed that EMR use during work hours was significantly dependent on the performing RHU (p<0.001). High-performing RHUs used EMRs more than 3 hours/day while low-performing RHUs used the systems for less. The pandemic either significantly decreased or increased EMR use during work hours by around 5 hours/day in some RHUs (p<0.01). Process maps revealed that there were additional activities performed by RHUs during the pandemic. Except for Update Patient Profile and Add Patient EMR features, significant differences (p<0.01) were observed in accessing frequently used features before and during the pandemic. The results suggest some uneven level of utilization of EMRs at the primary care level which can impact readiness to support full implementation of the UHC law. The study shows the potential of using a more granular approach in studying adoption to help improve the quality of EMR use and contribute to improving health service delivery and financing.