Overhauling patient records can curb physician burnout

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CEOs don't take minutes at meetings. So why do we expect doctors and other health care providers to spend hours recording notes — something experts know contributes to burnout?

"Having them do so much clerical work doesn't make sense," said Lisa Merlo, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and director of wellness programs at the University of Florida College of Medicine. "To improve the health care experience for everyone, we need to help them focus more on the actual practice of medicine."

Stressed doctors are less compassionate and more likely to make mistakes. Clinicians who leave the field reduce access to care. And replacing doctors in the midst of a physician shortage drives up costs.

"We can't ignore burnout and expect doctors to just keep picking up the slack," Merlo said.

Electronic health records have enabled better communication among health care providers. But the time they require can mean less interaction with patients and more time after hours typing notes, which can be more driven by insurance requirements than usefulness in patient care.

To find solutions, Merlo teamed up with Oliver Nguyen, a research coordinator and IT specialist in the College of Medicine, to evaluate 35 studies looking for common threads. Their study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Physician wellness initiatives have increased during the pandemic, often focusing exclusively on self-care. But "adding more yoga classes is not going to address a clinician working on electronic health records at home at 11 p.m.," Merlo said.

Their recommendations:

• Share the load

As the pandemic shifts some office visits to videoconference, email and phone communication, "inboxes are blowing up," Nguyen said.  Office staff can triage messages that don't require a doctor's input.

• Revisit policy

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Patients over Paperwork initiative in part to reduce documentation requirements. If it reduces records burden, it could serve as a model for private insurers.

• Create power users

Even when they're familiar with a system, doctors might not know about time-saving templates and bookmarks. An optimization team can help.

• Collaborate on design

Input from users matters when designing EHRs, as well as selecting and implementing them.

"A lot of the issues can be fixed," Merlo said. "If we invest in these resources, we can make this better for patients, for health care providers, for everybody."

SOURCE University of Florida