Study: Technological, admin demands cut into face time with patients

Technological and administrative obstacles are significantly cutting into available time for physicians to engage with patients. Nearly half a physician's office day is now filled by data entry into electronic medical records (EHRs) and administrative desk work, according to a new time-motion study conducted by experts at the American Medical Association (AMA) and Dartmouth-Hitchcock health care system. The study results were published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"This study reveals what many physicians are feeling — data entry and administrative tasks are cutting into the doctor-patient time that is central to medicine and a primary reason many of us became physicians," said AMA Immediate Past President Steven J. Stack., M.D. "Unfortunately, these demands are not being reconciled with patient priorities and clinical workflow. Clerical tasks and poorly-designed EHRs have physicians suffering from a growing sense that they are neglecting their patients as they try to keep up with an overload of type-and-click tasks."