Resident’s Use of EHR

Talk about your ship of fools.  As if almost surprised, a researcher claims a survey of 122 family medicine residents found that documentation time increased by about 16 minutes per patient encounter following implementation of an electronic health record system at two academic medical institutions in Southern California.  Also reported was:

1. An overall decrease in resident productivity at both academic institutions following implementation of the EHR: a 30% decrease at RCRMC and a 20% decrease at PVHMC. 
2. The residents also reported missing an average of two educational didactic lecture sessions per month in order to complete EHR notes.
3. In addition to missing didactic lectures, residents from both institutions used an average of 45 minutes of personal time to complete notes for a typical half-day clinic.

So, EHRs add work and take away from the practice of medicine and your personal life?  No shit.  Welcome to the real world, residents, except it gets exponentially worse because you get to see a lot more patients when you get out.  🙂