healthcare Article Stress and Burnout Related to Electronic Health Record Use among Healthcare Providers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Preliminary National Randomized Survey Jwaher A. Almulhem 1, *, Raniah N. Aldekhyyel 1 , Samar Binkheder 1 , Mohamad-Hani Temsah 2 and Amr Jamal 3,4   Citation: Almulhem, J.A.; Aldekhyyel, R.N.; Binkheder, S.; Temsah, M.-H.; Jamal, A. Stress and Burnout Related to Electronic Health Record Use among Healthcare Providers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Preliminary National Randomized Survey. Healthcare 2021, 9, 1367. https://doi.org/10.3390/ healthcare9101367 Academic Editors: Victor Kallen and Daniele Giansanti Received: 20 August 2021 Accepted: 11 October 2021 Published: 14 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Medical Informatics and E-learning Unit, Medical Education Department, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia; raldekhyyel@ksu.edu.sa (R.N.A.); sbinkheder@ksu.edu.sa (S.B.) 2 Pediatric Department, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia; mtemsah@ksu.edu.sa 3 Evidence-Based Health Care & Knowledge Translation Research Chair, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia; amrjamal@ksu.edu.sa 4 Family & Community Medicine Department, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia * Correspondence: Jalmulhem@ksu.edu.sa; Tel.: +966-118-066-385 Abstract: Healthcare providers’ burnout may potentially have a negative impact on patient care. The use of the electronic health record (EHR) increases the burden for healthcare providers (HCPs), particularly during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study assessed the stress and burnout related to the use of EHRs and health information technology (HIT) tools among HCPs during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. We used a self-developed survey tool. It consisted of five sections; demographics and professional data, experience using EHR, effects of EHR use, use of EHR and technology tools during COVID-19, and health and wellbeing. The survey link was emailed to a random sample of HCPs registered with a national scientific regulatory body. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed to measure the association between burnout and study variables. A total of 182 participants completed the survey. 50.5% of participants reported a presence of HIT-related stress, and 40.1% reported a presence of burnout. The variables independently associated with burnout were providing tertiary level of care, working with COVID-19 suspected cases, dissatisfaction with EHRs, and agreement with the statement that using EHRs added frustration to the workday. Further research that explores possible solutions is warranted to minimize burnout among HCPs, especially during infectious outbreaks. Keywords: electronic health record; burnout; COVID-19; healthcare providers; Saudi Arabia 1. Introduction With the global spread of the novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), the use of technology to support patient care has seen a rapid rise. Technological tools were used to support patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis through early detection of suspected individuals with the virus using artificial intelligence [1,2], generating big data analytics, reporting real-time data [3], and providing virtual care to patients [4]. The use of electronic health records (EHRs) to support patient care during COVID-19 has also been a focus of many healthcare organizations [5]. The EHR effectively handled COVID-19 by including standardized triage systems, enhancing ordering tools, securing communication tools, automating reporting and analysis, and providing telemedicine consultations, and patient portal services [5]. Despite the advantages of using EHRs in healthcare organizations as a tool to manage the COVID-19 outbreak [5], many healthcare providers (HCPs) reported an increased burden, burnout, and work dissatisfaction related to using EHR systems [6,7]. COVID-19 Healthcare 2021, 9, 1367. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9101367 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/healthcare