When reading electronic notes in patients' electronic medical records, physicians focus mostly on the "Impression and Plan" section and have a tendency to skim the sections covering medications, vital signs and laboratory results, according to a study in Applied Clinical Informatics.
In the study, researchers used eye-tracking technology on 10 physicians as they read three progress notes to see which sections of an electronic progress note received the most attention. The researches also analyzed the information that the physicians conveyed to other clinicians during a verbal handoff of the patient.
Results showed the physicians spent the most time reading the "Impression and Plan," and 91 percent of their verbal handoff contained information found in this section. "Medication Profile," "Vital Signs" and "Laboratory Results" received significantly less attention, even when these sections were longer than the "Impression and Plan" section.
Researchers suggest reformatting electronic notes could help draw physicians' attention to more areas of the note.
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