Inefficiencies of electronic medical record use by surgical healthcare providers

Objectives: Electronic medical records (EMRs) are intended to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care. Nevertheless, usability issues common to EMRs have been noted. Given the time demands of a clinic and surgery schedule, as well as the association between EMR usage and burnout, continued investigation into the utility of EMRs is important. We investigated the number of login encounters and time expended on EMRs by surgeons and advanced practice providers (APPs) across several surgical specialties.Methods: A one-year retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary pediatric hospital utilizing EMR data for surgeons and surgical APPs. Encounters and hours expended on EMR were calculated and stratified into three categories: within working hours, after-hours during the work week, and during the weekend. The mean hours expended per provider were calculated and compared between provider types and surgical specialty.Results: Mean time spent on EMR within working hours and after-hours during the work week was significantly less for surgeons than surgical APPs (1.76 hours/day vs. 2.10 hours/day, p < 0.0001; 0.272 hours/day vs. 0.299 hours/day, p = 0.0173, respectively). Orthopedic surgery providers spent the most time logged into EMRs during working hours (2.33 hours/day), while neurosurgery expended the least time (1.42 hours/day). A high volume of encounters occurred within and outside working hours for all providers.Conclusions: Regardless of provider type or surgical specialty, substantial time was still universally expended navigating EMRs. This single institution study suggests that opportunities to optimize utility of EMR should be further explored to improve provider work-life balance.