How Much Time Do Residents Spend on Inpatient Clinical Computing?

Objective: To evaluate the time that residents spend on clinical computing.

Methods: Our electronic health record system was used to record clinical computing time. Residents were unaware that we were tracking their time. Prior studies have reported computing times by watching the users. We evaluated residents in internal medicine, general surgery, and emergency medicine. The postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) and PGY3 residents were evaluated in July 2016 and January 2017.

Results: Emergency medicine residents spent approximately 3 hours/day and internal medicine and general surgery residents spent approximately 2 hours/day on clinical computing. For internal medicine and general surgery, there was a decrease in time spent on clinical computing from July to January and from PGY1 to PGY3.

Conclusions: Residents in some specialties may decrease the time spent on clinical computing. There are many possible reasons for the changes. Our study serves as a computerized observation baseline for future assessments, interventions, and for developing improvements that increase the value of clinical computing.