Do EHRs feed physician burnout?
Among 208 respondents, ~26% of physicians reported burnout symptoms and 74.5% of those with symptoms blamed the EHR; logs showed large overestimates vs self-reported EHR time.
Source
The Influence of Electronic Health Record Use on Physician Burnout: Cross-Sectional Survey
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Survey of physicians/learners plus EHR back-end usage logs at a Canadian academic mental health hospital
- N
- N=208 · 176 physicians + 32 learners; survey sent to 474
- Population
- Physicians, residents, and fellows at a large Canadian academic mental health hospital
- Outcome
- Burnout symptoms and perceived EHR contribution; log vs self-report time discrepancies
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Inspect source passages
Do EHRs feed physician burnout?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
208 respondents (176 physicians, 32 learners).
Our survey included 208 respondents, including physicians (n=176) and learners (n=32).
25.6% of physicians reported burnout symptoms; 74.5% of symptomatic respondents cited EHR.
A total of 25.6% (45/176) of practicing physicians and 19% (6/32) of learners reported having one or more symptoms of burnout, and 74.5% (155/208) of all respondents who reported burnout symptoms identified the EHR as a contributor.
What they did
Cross-sectional survey (May–June 2019) of physicians and learners plus administrative EHR usage logs at a Canadian academic mental health hospital; tested associations between EHR factors and burnout.
What they found
25.6% of physicians and 19% of learners reported ≥1 burnout symptom; 74.5% of respondents with symptoms identified the EHR as a contributor. Lower satisfaction/higher frustration linked to perceiving EHR-driven burnout. Logs overestimated time/patient by 13.6 min and after-hours EHR time by 5.63 hours vs self-report.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Single-site cross-section cannot prove EHRs cause burnout or that any redesign would reduce it; self-report and log metrics both have measurement error.
Key terms
- Physician burnout
- Occupational syndrome with exhaustion/cynicism/reduced efficacy symptoms.
- EHR
- Electronic health record clinical documentation system.
- Usage logs
- Back-end system metrics of time spent in the EHR.
- After-hours EHR time
- Documentation work outside clinic hours.
- Learners
- Residents and fellows included alongside attending physicians.
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Respondents analyzed:
Common questions
Respondents?
208 (176 physicians, 32 learners).
Physician burnout symptom rate?
25.6% (45/176).
EHR blamed among symptomatic?
74.5% (155/208).
Log vs survey discrepancy?
+13.6 min/patient; +5.63 h after-hours.