Work hours

In a recent article from Medical Economics they report that physician productivity is down again. Exclusive Survey—Productivity: Work hours up, patient visits down - Documentation, insurance, and compliance issues are keeping many doctors in the office longer. - Medical Economics

This continues to show a consistent trend and some key passages from the article are:

What's going on here? It's the paperwork, say practice management consultants. One, Ginny Martin of Health Care Consulting Associates of Northwest Ohio in Waterville, attributes the longer hours to the steady rise in coding documentation requirements and the need for more physician involvement in the administrative side of running an office. Another explanation, she points out, is the aging population. Patients are presenting with more complex medical histories and problems, requiring additional physician time.

Also, doctors who are switching from manual record-keeping to EHRs might find that they have to put in more office hours to get the new system up and running. "We've seen EHR implementation dig deeply into physician productivity until the practice members are adept at using the system," says Judy Bee of Practice Performance Group in Long Beach, CA.

In addition, the report showed that female physicians still work fewer average hours compared to men but the gap is narrowing. The reason given is that more female physicians are available in the workforce and practices do not have to accommodate part time physicians if they don’t want to. Even with the gap narrowing in work hours, the number of patients being seen by female physicians is still markedly different on the average with females physicians seeing fewer numbers.