ED staff's Facebook time increased with patient volume

Emergency department healthcare workers in one hospital spent an average of 12 minutes per hour browsing Facebook, and use of Facebook increased as patient volumes and acuity increased, according to a study in the May issue of Journal of Medical Internet Research. University of Florida researchers analyzed anonymous network utilization records for 68 workstations in the emergency medicine department in an academic medical center for 15 consecutive days and compared those data to ED work index data derived by the hospital information systems. Healthcare workers spent a total of 72.5 hours browsing Facebook and visited Facebook 9,369 times, according to the study.

The findings suggest the need for comprehensive policies regarding internet use, the authors wrote. In addition, "Future studies should examine if, in acute environments, access to applications like Facebook should be relegated to break rooms or other designated spaces for non-work functions," they concluded.