Online dispute resolution in mediating EHR disputes: a case study on the impact of emotional intelligence

ABSTRACT

An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an individual’s record of all health events that enables critical information to be documented and shared electronically amongst health care providers and patients. The introduction of an EHR, particularly a patient-accessible EHR, can be expected to lead to an escalation of enquiries, complaints and ultimately, disputes. Prevailing opinion is that Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems can help with the mediation of certain types of disputes electronically, particularly systems which deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce the need for a human mediator. However, disputes regarding health tend to invoke emotional responses from patients that may conceivably impact ODR efficacy. This raises an interesting question on the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) in the process of mediation. Using a phenomenological research methodology simulating doctor–patient disputes mediated with an AI Smart ODR system in place of a human mediator, we found an association between EI and the propensity for a participant to change their previously asserted claims. Our results indicate participants with lower EI tend to prolong resolution compared to those with higher EI. Future research include trialling larger scale ODR systems for specific cohorts of patients in the area of health related dispute resolution are advanced.

KEYWORDS:

• Online dispute resolution
• electronic health record
• mediation
• emotional intelligence
• negotiation support

Acknowledgements

We thank the universities’ Collaborative Network Fund that provided us the grant towards conducting this pilot study. We acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Nial Muecke in the development of the ODR software, ReConsider and the assistance of Ms Heather May in extracting and performing preliminary data analysis on ODR interactions from the ReConsider online system. We are also grateful to Prof. Jemal Abawajy for his valuable suggestions while conducting the study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deakin University and the University of Ballarat Collaboration Fund.