Non-principals in a practice are likely to gain more from this increase in legibility than others who have had years to learn how to interpret various squiggles in the notes. A well known effect of moving from typewriters to word processors in any organisation is the tendency to revise more often. School yourself to ignore the odd spelling mistake in the notes, and do something constructive rather than go back and correct it. The corollary is that you should not be snappy about typos in other people's notes. There is no need to write more than you would in a handwritten record Note 2 .
Patients also find that computers affect the consultation.
How much this is so depends on the patient and the computer, but mainly on the doctor. A GP who likes his computer, finds it a helpful tool and projects this, will usually report that his patients like it. Conversely GPs, who struggle with a system they do not like or which is not easy to use, will find their patients resent its presence in the consultation. We are becoming a sophisticated society and few patients will be surprised that their doctor chooses to change from paper to electrons but any suggestion that their time is being used to collect statistics will rile them, and probably the doctor too. And rightly so.