Physicians Burdened by E-mails, Unreimbursed Tasks, Study Finds

Primary care physicians spend a significant amount of time answering e-mails and performing other tasks that provide them with limited reimbursement, according to a new study conducted by evaluating electronic health records, the Washington Post reports.

The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Brown, Washington Post, 4/29).

Study Details

Richard Baron — an internist in a five-provider practice in Philadelphia with roughly 8,500 patients — conducted the yearlong study using his practice’s EHR system to track the average daily workload of a primary care physician (Rubin, USA Today, 4/29).

Baron found that on an average workday, each primary care provider in his practice:

• Saw 18.1 patients;
• Handled 23.7 phone calls;
• Answered 16.8 e-mails, mostly dealing with test result interpretations;
• Dealt with 19.5 lab reports, 11.1 imaging reports and 13.9 consult reports; and
• Issued 12.1 prescription refills, excluding those issued during patient visits (Hobson, “Health Blog,” Wall Street Journal, 4/28).

Reimbursement Issues

Baron said the results show the need for a new payment method that accurately reimburses primary care physicians for the amount of care they provide.

Baron acknowledged that reimbursing for each phone call or e-mail a physician handles would be impractical, but he suggested that adopting capitation — in which physicians would receive an annual lump sum per patient — would better cover the amount of time primary care physicians actually spend on patients (USA Today, 4/29).

EHRs: A Possible Remedy?

Some experts suggest that EHRs could help primary care practices improve care coordination and workflow efficiency, thus reducing the time burdens on physicians.

National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said the study results highlight “the enormous strain” on primary care doctors but also show “a pathway toward escaping at least some of those burdens; the electronic health record combined with changes in workflow and payment” (Lohr, New York Times, 4/28).

Source: iHealthBeat

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