1. Most surgeons spend more than 40 hours per week seeing patients. Approximately 63 percent of orthopedic surgeon respondents spent more than 40 hours per week seeing patients. Of those surgeons, 8 percent said they spent more than 65 hours per week seeing patients. Nearly 30 percent spent from 41-55 hours seeing patients, while a little more than 15 percent saw patients for less than 30 hours every week.
2. Practice setting has little impact on the amount of time spent with patients. The largest percentage of orthopedic surgeons in both private practice (20 percent) and in hospital-owned practices (25 percent) spend between 30-40 hours seeing patients per week. Surgeons who reported spending less than 30 hours per week seeing patients were more likely in private practice (14 percent) than employed by the hospital (10 percent). However, those who reported spending more than 65 hours every week with patients were also slightly more likely to be in a private practice setting (7 percent) than a hospital employee (6 percent).
3. Most orthopedic surgeons see 50-100 visits per week. Slightly less than 25 percent of orthopedic surgeons reported having an average of 50-75 visits per week and approximately 24 percent reported having 76-99 visits per week. Nearly 22 percent of respondents reported having between 100-125 visits per week, meaning the vast majority of orthopedic surgeons experience 50-100 visits every week. Approximately 6 percent of surgeons reported more than 150 visits per week and 16 percent reported less than 50.
4. Orthopedic surgeons are most likely to spend 9-12 minutes with each patient. Nearly half (40 percent) of orthopedic surgeons reported spending 9-12 minutes with each patient. Another 25 percent reported spending 13-16 minutes with each patient and 15 percent reported 17-20 minutes. This does not account for time spent in surgery or patient education and follow-up.
5. Non-patient related activities are likely to consume 10 or more hours per week. Of the surgeons who responded to the survey, approximately 33 percent reported spending 10-14 hours per wee on non-patient activities such as administration and paperwork. An additional 10 percent spent 15-19 hours on other duties. Nearly 30 percent reported spending 5-9 working hours doing other tasks. Only 15 percent reported spending less than five hours on non-patient responsibilities.
Read the report on orthopedic surgeon patient visits.
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