Health Affairs published an article examining how physicians split their time between seeing patients and desk work.
The study authors accessed time stamp data from an EHR to examine the physician's work efforts for the study. There were 31 million EHR transactions gathered from 2011 to 2014 from 471 primary care physicians. The study authors found:
1. Physicians logged an average of 3.08 hours on office visits per day and 3.17 hours on desktop medicine, which includes messaging patients through a secure portal, responding to online prescription refill requests, online patient advice, ordering tests, reviewing tests and messaging staff.
2. The physicians reported a decrease in the time allotted to face-to-face visits as the time for desktop medicine increased.
3. The physicians at level 2 and level 3 recognition clinics spent more face-to-face time with patients. The physicians that were more experienced with EHR use reported spending slightly less time with desktop medicine.
4. The physician burnout rate due to EHR use is well documented and to combat burnout some organizations are using medical scribes. The study's data suggests 34 percent of the physician's logged time was on progress notes, which means scribe support could reduce desktop medicine time and potentially combat burnout.
5. EHR training and optimization could help physicians become more efficient and effective with their desktop medicine time.