Recently, I was traveling with my family to Atlanta, GA, to enjoy a family wedding. One morning I went down to the hotel lobby to get a cup of coffee and I saw a person hunched over a laptop clicking and typing. It’s something that we all see in public, but in a glance I saw a certain color scheme and banner at the top that I instantly recognized. It was the screen for a popular EMR system! This was a physician on a weekend morning in a hotel doing routine EMR documentation!
I did not want to interrupt this person, but she was clearly not enjoying the work. I watched her while I was waiting for my family to join me in the lobby. This got me thinking about how much time we as physicians and surgeons spend doing routine work activities at home. Some call this “pajama time” – the time after work and after getting the kids down, but before falling asleep. Some estimates are that this can be as much as 1 to 2 hours each day! Think of what you can do with that amount of time to help yourself recharge!
If you find yourself using a lot of pajama time to do documentation, then you should probably take some steps, any steps, to try to minimize this. The first step is to ask for help from your team. You will need to find some time to analyze where the hurdles are for you. Depending on the problem, you may need to find different solutions. If you are late dictating operative notes, then designing templates may be an efficient solution. If you are late doing office notes, then using a scribe may help (if available). Changing your workflow may also be beneficial. For example, you could change your workflow where you dictate into the EMR in the room with the patient and family so that you can’t move onto the next encounter without finishing the required work.
While just putting your head down and plowing through it seems like the least stressful, it is rarely the best option. Ask for help. Identify one small problem and solve it. Move onto the next one. You will be surprised by the progress.
Do you have a story to tell about burnout and the EMR?
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Source:
Reducing Clinician Burnout in Five EHR-Related Areas – Gabriel Perna
About the Author – Ryan Will, MD
Ryan is a board-certified and fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon specializing in trauma care. After finishing his orthopaedic residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania, he completed an orthopaedic trauma fellowship at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. When he is not seeing patients or coaching, Dr. Will enjoys hiking, mountain climbing, cooking, and spending time with his family.