Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon Time Utilization in Clinic: A Pilot Study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Understanding physician time allocation is crucial for optimizing clinical workflows.
• Pediatric orthopaedic surgeons face unique demands in patient care and documentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the time pediatric orthopaedic surgeons dedicate to various activities during clinic sessions.
• To assess the impact of electronic medical record (EMR) systems on physician-patient interaction.

Main Methods:

• An observational study involving two pediatric orthopaedic surgeons over three 4-hour clinic sessions.
• Data collection included time spent with patients, staff, teaching, dictating, multitasking, and on the EMR, along with computer mouse clicks.
• A new patient was seen every 20 minutes, utilizing the Cerner EMR system.

Main Results:

• Physicians spent 36% of their time on the EMR, compared to 35% with patients.
• An average of 7.2 minutes per patient visit and 87 minutes per 4-hour session were spent on the EMR.
• Each patient encounter required an average of 70 computer mouse clicks.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric orthopaedic surgeons allocate more time to EMR tasks than direct patient care.
• High computer mouse click counts indicate potential physician 'click fatigue'.
• Improving EMR technology, employing medical scribes, or integrating paper records may enhance physician efficiency and the patient-physician relationship.