Study: Physicians spend nearly twice as much time on EHR/desk work as patients

Physicians spent 27% of their office day on direct clinical face time with patients and 49% of their time on electronic health records and desk work, according to a study by the American Medical Association and Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In addition, physicians spend another one to two hours of personal time each night on data entry demands, the study found. “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 Stack, M.D.