What doctors love (and hate) about their EMRs

EMRs were introduced back in the 90s with the stated intent to improve care quality, reduce errors, and make clinical work more efficient. Here we are in 2025 and clinicians continue to complain about the technology. Patients too.

What went wrong? 

We reviewed technical studies and fluffy articles from news sites to gain some insight but during 2025, the BodySite team collected feedback from our own population of 5,000 healthcare providers — coaches, nurses, MDs — really just about every type of practice.

And one theme came up again and again.  Practitioners don’t hate the idea of EMRs — they hate the way most EMRs currently available, get in the way of what they really want out of their practice management software. And what the patient is expecting.

What we found interesting is that some practices had tried many EMRs in an attempt to find the right combination of tools.  After exhausting mutiple systems, we found that they learned that one system could not do everything they wanted.  But there were a few items that practitioners would "die on that hill" for. 

1. Better Communication — with patients between visits, and between providers in general

Communication ranked as one of the most valuable aspects of an EMR when it’s done well. And not just reminders about the next appointment. Providers want tools that make it easier (and maybe even fun) to stay connected with patients "outside the clinic" and to collaborate with care teams.

Providers reported much higher satisfaction for themselves and for patients when those communication tools supported the real care instructions discussed in encounters but made the information and suport available to the patient after the patient went home or back to work — including secure messaging, sharing of videos and photos, shared notes, and the ability to engage patients without unnecessary appointments.

What providers expressed over and over was wanting to continue the conversation with the patient outside the clinic and in a way that wasn't clinical.  The modern practictioner wants to treat their patient like a person more than as another patient (or a patient chart), to engage in a real human conversation, that doesn't feel stiff or medical, to increase the likelihood of patient trust and engagement. 

In nearly all of the EMR's practices were using instead of or in addition to the BodySite practice management platform, the practitioners expressed frustration with a lack of those communication tools. Most of the available tools were good at confirming appointments, lab results and follow up reminders, but had no meaningful way to have a personal, social conversation with patients when needed or desirable and no way to automate care education in a way that felt personalized. 

2. Better Access to Patient Data — Anywhere, Anytime

Doctors and nurses also placed a high value on fast, reliable access to their patient's information. This includes not only clinical history and labs, but real-world data collected between visits.

What we found interesting is that many platforms don't provide the practitioner with any mobile access to the patient record and if they do, the data and information is only what was recorded in the encounter (the note, the chart, the vitals at the encounter).  Only a handful of platforms were reported to allow the provider to view the patient's real-world every day information from Fitbit, Oura, Withings, Apple Health, food tracking journals.  

Systems that supported mobile-friendly data entry — for both providers and patients — gave care teams a more complete and timely picture of what’s happening outside the clinic. Practitioners felt that without this information that was being self-reported in real time, they were missing opportunities to engage and intervene, at critical moments (odd food patterns, missed sleep, weight gain instead of weight loss or vice versa). 

When patients can log symptoms, behaviors, or vitals as they occur, clinicians gain insight that static visit-based documentation simply can’t provide. There was a sense of a blind spot that wouldn't be cleared up until the next visit unless the practitioner took the time to reach out and ask, which was not a feasible option given workload. 

3. Improved tracking of biometrics and other markers

Tracking progress over time remains a core expectation of any EMR. Practiced expressed a very high priority for quickly seeing trends, identifying early warning signs, and monitoring adherence to care plans without sifting through cluttered notes. And they wanted that across a broad spectrum of biometrics, activities and devices.

Providers placed a high value on systems that integrate remote connected devices and patient-reported outcomes directly into their workflow. When care teams can monitor data in near real time, documentation becomes actionable insight rather than administrative overhead. 

One example that came up multiple times was the ability to set alerts for any biomarker and to be notiifed when that marker was not being measured, was being measured but was out of range or was being measured and didn't fit (or did) some other criteria (progress, failure, plateau).  

4.  Flexible education and care instructions

EMR's don't teach. Many systems allowed practitioners to assign a handout, share a video or give simple dietary instructions. But when practitioners showed us the possibilities in some systems, we understood the frustration.  Only a handful of EMR's or practice management software solutions had any type of content management or learning management system.  So the practitioner was limited to sharing the "plan" in a soap note or a message.  Or the limited ability to share one or two objects.

What are you looking for?  When polled, providers were searching for something that felt like a Thinkific, Kajabi, Teachable kind of content and program builder, so they could build strutured lesson plans and drip courses in addition to personalized care instructions.

The main reason providers were seeking these tools was because they were too busy charting and managing the practice to spend time repeating the same instructions and learning materials to every patient.  What they sought, was a system that could do both, and put much of the common denominator education on autopilot for them.  Systems that had that functionality rose quickly to the top.

Why frustration still exists

In our review of all of the data, we found that frustration with EMRs continues in part because practitioners are having a hard time finding all of the solutions they need, in one system. When we probed more deeply, practitioners admitted that an all-in-one solution was a bit of a unicorn. But their answers revealed that the real issue was the disconnect between a system design still tied to the 1990s (availabiilty of data first) and real-world care delivery, which itself has changed dramatically to a patient-first approach — a focus on the patient as a person and not just a chart.

Among the top complaints persisting in existing systems and the workflow:

• Documentation burden that prioritizes form completion over patient interaction
  • Solution: AI scribing so the provider is actually WITH the patient and not staring at a screen
  • Solution: Form-based templates for charting that providers and practioners can complete together for a sense of partnership, rather than a "date entry" feel
• Rigid workflows that don’t reflect how clinicians think or practice
  • Solution:  Allow patients to self-book and receive automated forms and payment links
  • Solutoin:  Auto enroll patients into pre-visit instructions, follow up care, education programs
• Alert fatigue that obscures important signals
  • Solution:  Ability to set alerts for what's important, turn off alerts that are not
• Limited visibility between visits, forcing reactive rather than proactive care
  • Solution: Automated care programs, self-entered biometrics, activities, food tracking so the care team is aware of gaps and blind spot (or success) as it's happening in the patient's daily life.

We're still digesting input and feedback about payments and payment systems, which diverge quite a bit from the care itself in many practices. We expect to deliver an article about top hits and misses in payments and billing in our next update.  

If your practice is still looking for a solution that feels more social than clinical, that puts the patient first for better outcomes and a more enjoyable and profitable practice, send us an email or set up a quick demo to see if BodySite is a fit. You can watch a short recording of our latest features here: https://bodysite.com/demo.