Yes, I agree with the finding of Muhiyaddin et al. (2022) that EMR/EHR is one of the top causes of physician burnout. Many health officers say EMR takes too much time and creates stress. The common problems are heavy documentation, poor system design, and too many alerts. Doctors often need to work overtime, sometimes even at home, just to finish their records. This makes them feel tired, lose balance between work and personal life, and sometimes even lose interest in their career.
From my experience working with clinics in the ethnic health organizations’ areas in Myanmar, I have also heard similar complaints. Many health workers there said they prefer simple paper records, because EMR systems are slow, require internet, and are not aligned with local context and workflow. They felt that instead of helping them save time, EMR made them spend more hours on data entry and less time with patients. This reduced their motivation and sometimes caused frustration in the team.
To reduce this problem,
1. Improve EMR design – make it simple, fast, and align with workflows.
2. Give proper training – so health workers know how to use it easily.
3. Reduce data amount – keep only the important ones.
4. Provide support staff – to help with data entry, so doctors can focus on patients.
5. Encourage balance – limit after-hours work with EMR and allow offline options in low-resource areas.