For every hour physicians spend face-to-face with patients, they spend two more hours at the end of every day documenting what they discussed into the electronic health record, according to a time and motion study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. And researchers suggest the documentation workload might be adding to physician burnout.
“Time spent in meaningful interactions with patients is a powerful driver of physician career satisfaction, but increased paperwork and time on the computer mean less time for direct patient care,” the researchers wrote in an article.
