How to Teach Good EHR Documentation and Deflate Bloated Chart Notes

Since health care organizations implemented widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), clinicians' notes about patients' care have become longer and more cumbersome, a phenomenon colloquially known as "note bloat." Bulky templates and blocks of data take time to sort through, making it difficult for clinicians to discern what is clinically and ethically relevant in prior clinicians' notes about their encounters with a patient. This article considers important consequences of long, dense notes for clinicians, including less time to spend face-to-face with patients. Bloated notes have other consequences for teaching and for clinician well-being, so this article proposes a less-is-more approach to electronic documentation that focuses on making important information about a patient easier to find, illuminating clinical reasoning, and promoting efficiency, concision, and clarity in EHR documentation practices.