The Article in Brief

Time Spent in Face-to-Face Patient Care and Work Outside the Examination Room

Andrew Gottschalk, BS , and colleagues

Background It is widely thought that doctor visits are becoming shorter. According to national estimates by doctors, however, the length of primary care office visits increased during a 10-year period (1988-1998). One possible explanation is that when doctors estimate the length of patient visits, they combine face-to-face patient care time with patient-related work outside the examination room. This study examines that possibility by directly observing doctors’ work time in and out of the examination room.

What This Study Found In this study, doctors work an average of 8.6 hours per day in the office. Face-to-face patient care accounts for 55% of the day; 14% of the day is spent on work outside the examination room related to current patients. One fifth (23%) of the day involves work related to patients not currently in the office. This includes writing or dictating notes, making phone calls about patient care, and interpreting laboratory results.

Implications

• When estimating the length of patient visits, doctors might include patient care responsibilities outside the examination room. It is therefore possible that face-to-face visit time has decre
• Office systems, such as electronic prescribing and electronic health records, could help streamline the doctor’s role and increase the efficiency of information management in the doctor’s office.