Frustrations related to health IT and increase in documentation may be a contributing factor to physician burnout, according to an article in Healthcare Informatics.
The article includes a study's results, which Philip Kroth, MD, associate CMO and director of biomedical informatics research, training and scholarship at the University of New Mexico Hospitals in Albuquerque and his colleagues conducted.
The AHRQ-funded study aims to determine the reasons health IT contributes to burnout. It involved questionnaires and focus groups with 41 primary care physicians from New Mexico, California and Colorado.
Here are five findings from the questionnaires:
• Twenty-two percent of respondents indicated sufficient time for documentation.
• But, 56 percent agreed they felt a "great deal of stress because of my job."
• Forty-two percent reported "poor" or "marginal" control of workload.
• Around 90 percent reported satisfactory or better proficiency with EHR.
• Fifty-six percent felt the amount of time they spent on EHR at home was "excessive" or "moderately high."