Association of Electronic Health Record Inbasket Message Characteristics With Physician Burnout

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Physician Well-being
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Physician burnout is a significant issue, exacerbated by the demands of electronic health records (EHRs).
• The volume of EHR inbasket messages has increased, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to physician workload and stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between the characteristics of EHR inbasket messages and the prevalence of physician burnout.
• To identify potential factors within EHR communication systems that may contribute to or alleviate physician burnout.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study was conducted at an academic medical center, surveying physicians across various specialties.
• Physician burnout was assessed using the Mini-Z burnout scale, while EHR inbasket messages were analyzed using sentiment analysis and natural language processing.
• Multivariable modeling examined associations between message characteristics, physician demographics, practice characteristics, and burnout risk.

Main Results:

• Half of the surveyed physicians (50.4%) reported burnout. No significant association was found between EHR inbasket message characteristics, including sentiment scores, and physician burnout.
• Burnout was more prevalent in Hispanic/Latino physicians and women, and less prevalent in physicians with over 15 years of practice.
• Analysis of negative messages revealed common use of profanity and violent language, indicating areas for system improvement.

Conclusions:

• EHR inbasket message characteristics, including sentiment, were not directly associated with physician burnout in this study.
• The presence of negative language in messages presents an opportunity to enhance patient engagement strategies, EHR portal design, and filtering mechanisms.
• Natural language processing offers a valuable tool for understanding EHR message content and its potential impact on physician well-being, informing quality improvement initiatives.