health-informatics
Do EHRs feed physician burnout?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
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.
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
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Key findings
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.
Methodology
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.
Limitations
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.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Communication skills training can improve health literacy–related medical outcomes.
Physician communication training improves health literacy and medical outcomes in the cited interventional evaluation.
Scope note — EHR burnout is a system constraint on PCC delivery
Limits the claim's scope: a different population, assay, or outcome.
PCC/co-creation associated with satisfaction vs EHR use associated with physician burnout
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
PCC/co-creation associated with satisfaction vs EHR use associated with physician burnout
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.