News: Pediatricians spend least time in the EHR compared to other primary care specialties, study shows

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that while all primary care physicians spend more time using the EHR than other medical specialty and surgical colleagues, pediatricians in particular spend the least amount of time in the EHR out of all primary care specialties.

The study found that family medicine physicians averaged 128 minutes each day actively working in the EHR, internal medicine clinicians averaged 122 minutes, and pediatricians averaged 95 minutes daily.

Researchers analyzed 349 outpatient provider groups by using the Epic Systems’ EHR platform in the year 2019. They found that much of the time difference came from using the system’s messaging function. Pediatricians averaged 20 messages daily, while family medicine and internal medicine specialists averaged 37 and 42, respectively.

The study found that the time spent writing notes was almost identical across the three specialties. The study authors noted this was an important finding as it meant note taking was not the primary reason for time differences spent in the EHR. This “suggests that the documentation burdens may be driven by factors beyond patient complexity,” authors wrote.

Editor’s note: The JAMA published study can be found here. For more information about the role of technology in CDI work, read the latest edition of the CDI Journal.