Freeing physicians from administrative tasks may improve patient satisfaction

Creating a new position to assume a physician’s documentation duties may lead to better patient care and satisfaction, according to a University of California study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.

Over the course of 326 four-hour clinic sessions, “physician partners” worked alongside doctors during patient visits and handled their administrative responsibilities, such as pulling patient information from computer records, transcribing comments into the records, completing lab requests, and scheduling follow-up appointments.

Although the study was limited to just five doctors at one health center, the results found that the majority of patients felt their visits ran smoothly, which they partly attributed to the presence of the physician partner.