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.