Approximately half of a physician’s office day may consist of punching data into an EHR and performing other administrative desk tasks.

Experts from the American Medical Association (AMA) and Dartmouth-Hitchcock health care system performed a time-motion study on 57 U.S. physicians in four different fields: family medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, and orthopedics.

The study measured the direct face time that a physician had with a patient, EHR and desk work, administrative tasks, and other tasks.

“We trained research assistants in a technique known as direct observation,” lead author Dr. Christine Sinsky, vice president of professional satisfaction at AMA, told HCB News. “They recorded what the physicians were doing in two hour blocks to ensure that they were accurate during observations.”

The physicians were observed for 430 hours and 21 of the doctors also completed after-hour diaries. Results showed that during office hours, a doctor spent 27 percent of their time directly with a patient and 49.2 percent of their time on EHR and deskwork duties.

“One of the most important findings we discovered is that even though physicians spend half their day doing clerical work, they still have one to two hours of clerical work to take home at night,” Sinsky said. “Instead of being able to interact with one’s family, they are spending time doing data entry work on a computer.”

Previous studies conducted by the American Medical Association and Mayo Clinic found that burnout has also been increasing in physicians, and as of 2014, 54.4 percent have at least one symptom of burnout.

One symptom of burnout is a lack of feeling effective in their work environment, said Sinsky, and sometimes a physician may feel as though they aren’t making a difference in their patient’s life.

“You can imagine if you’re spending half your time spinning your wheels and just clicking and clicking in the EHR, you’re not applying the skills you worked so hard to attain to help your patients achieve better health,” she said.

“It’s important to understand this is not an indictment of EHRs, or to say that EHRs are the only responsible entity,” added Sinsky.

Doctors can learn about burnout using STEPS Forward, an online program created by the AMA. They can learn about different risk factors for burnout and figure out how to become passionate about their work once again, which may have declined due to burnout.

The AMA believes that a better-designed EHR system may help physicians manage their work and feel less burnout, which in turn, helps patients receive better care from their doctor. Some aspects the AMA thinks that EHR systems could improve upon are facilitating digital and mobile patient engagement, and expediting user input into product design and post-implementation feedback.

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