Gender Differences in Electronic Medical Record Usage Between Plastic Surgeons at a Single Institution

Area of Science:

• Medical informatics
• Surgical practice
• Physician well-being

Background:

• Electronic Medical Records (EMR) offer benefits but are linked to physician burnout.
• Ambulatory medicine data indicates higher EMR use by female physicians.
• EMR usage disparities in surgical settings remain understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze and compare electronic medical record (EMR) usage patterns between male and female plastic surgeons.
• To investigate potential gender-based differences in time spent on various EMR tasks.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of EMR data from 13 attending plastic surgeons over 12 months.
• Extracted data included time spent on messages, precharting, notes, orders, and in-basket tasks.
• Univariate regression models were used for statistical comparison between male and female surgeons.

Main Results:

• Female plastic surgeons spent significantly more time per message (18.9 seconds) and on the in-basket feature (5.52 minutes) than male surgeons.
• Female surgeons also spent more time on notes (15.3 minutes).
• These differences amounted to nearly 2 additional hours of EMR use per week for female surgeons.

Conclusions:

• Female plastic surgeons dedicate more time to EMR tasks, including patient messages and note documentation.
• Increased EMR workload is a potential contributor to physician burnout.
• Healthcare institutions should address EMR documentation time to improve surgical physician efficiency and well-being.