Table 2.

Finalised changes to the EHR assessment forms

Usability barrier	Change made to EHR system	Assessment forms affected	Summary of change
Unrelated questions in forms	Adding conditional logic	Mental health assessment	An example of conditional logic added in the mental health assessment form includes a question asking about the age range of the patient being assessed. Depending on the age range selected, only the form with questions relevant to that population group are displayed to the clinician.
Time taken to complete forms; Duplication within assessment forms	Removing duplication within EHR assessment forms	Risk assessment; physical health assessment	Questions that were duplicated across assessment forms were removed to minimise duplication and reduce time taken to complete forms
Time taken to complete forms	Auto-population of forms	Mental health assessment; Physical health assessment; Risk assessment; HONOS	This feature helped to automatically generate patient information on assessment forms based on previous forms for the same patient within the same care episode. This would allow clinicians to easily see information gathered from previous assessments and edit sections of the form only when an update was necessary. This feature was designed to minimise distress for patients and save time for clinicians.
Time taken to complete forms	Auto-population of letters	Letters to primary care clinicians	This feature helped to automatically generate letters to primary care clinicians from completed assessment forms. Before this change, clinicians would usually type up a separate letter and this would involve duplicating information that had already been added into the assessment forms. Bespoke templates were created to tailor letters from each clinical team with features such as headers and logos. This feature was added to save time for clinicians and increase the likelihood that EHR assessment forms will be completed.
Difficulty navigating the EHR system; Time taken to complete forms	Visual workflow dashboard	Mental health assessment; Physical health assessment; Risk assessment; Patient care plan; Letter to the primary care clinician	A visual workflow dashboard of assessment forms was added. The dashboard consisted of hyperlinks for all assessment forms that would need to be completed for a patient. Prior to this, clinicians would have to manually search for all the forms that needed to be completed. Each row on the assessment dashboard referred to a new patient from the clinician’s caseload. The dashboard was also colour coded using red, amber, green and grey. The dashboard was designed to reduce time and effort when completing assessment forms and improve clinician workflow.