Primary care physicians spend a great deal of time interacting with EHRs. A study published in Annals of Family Medicine found the average was two hours per one hour of direct patient care.
Researchers studied 142 PCPs in a single Wisconsin health system, analyzing their Epic EHR interactions over a three-year period.
Here's what they found:
1. Over an 11.4-hour workday, PCPs spend 4.5 clinical hours and 1.4 hours after work interacting with the EHR.
2. Clerical and administrative tasks, such as documentation, order entry and billing and coding, took 157 minutes daily.
3. Clinicians spent an additional 85 minutes on inbox management.
4. Overall, PCPS spent more than 50 percent of their workday in the EHR.