Infectious disease physicians spend the most time on electronic health records, nearly twice as much as dermatology physicians, a recent study found.
The study, published in Journal of General Internal Medicine, used data from ambulatory physicians using an Epic Systems EHR platform between November 2021 and April 2022. The data included 200,081 physicians from 396 organizations.
The study found physicians spend an average of 5.8 hours per eight-hour shift on EHR.
Here are the specialties with the highest and lowest EHR times:
Highest
Infectious disease — 8.4 hours per eight hours of scheduled patient time
Endocrinology — 7.7
Nephrology — 7.5
Primary care (family and internal medicine) — 7.3
Hematology — 7.2
Lowest
Anesthesiology — 2.5 hours per eight hours of scheduled patient time.
Orthopedics — 3.3
Otorhinolaryngology — 4
Surgery — 4
Dermatology — 4.3