Specialists that spend the most (and least) time on EHRs

According to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, physicians spend approximately 16 minutes per patient visit working with electronic health records (EHR). Of this time, an average of 33% was spent on chart review, 24% on documentation, and 17% on ordering.

Physicians specializing in gerontology, endocrinology, primary care, and internal medicine spent the most time on EHRs, up to 22 minutes per patient encounter on average. Specialists in sports medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation spent the least time, approximately 10 minutes per patient encounter. Excessive time spent on EHRs is widely held to contribute to physician burnout.

Conducted by researchers from the EHR vendor the Cerner Corporation, the study examined use of its Millennium EHR platform. Researchers considered 100 million patient visits with 155,000 physicians in the United States to formulate these averages.

Sources: The DO and Fierce Healthcare