Robert Miller, Chief Medical Science Officer of CancerLinQ, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper by Jay Holmgren et al. published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute:
“Using Epic Signal data from 15.7K oncologists over ~3 yrs (2019-22), Holmgren et al. showed that mean overall EHR inbox messages increased by 19%, mean overall patient-initiated messages increased 34%, and total EHR InBasket time increased 25.4%.
Not surprisingly, the number of minutes of EHR work outside of normal work hours went from 189 minutes/week in 2019 to 212 in 2022 (a 12.1% increase).
Total weekly EHR time from highest to lowest by oncology specialty was: med onc/heme-onc > gyn onc> surg onc > radiation onc > ped onc. The post-COVID increase in message volume is the new normal.
‘Health systems should recognize these facts and develop sustainable workflows and approaches to appropriately recognize and value EHR-related work. This may require the allocation of resources to enable new models of team-based inbox management, with associated staffing, to ensure physicians are not overwhelmed by this increasingly popular modality of care.’ – The authors note
Healthcare organizations, payors, and policymakers, please pay attention to data like these.”
“National trends in oncology specialists’ EHR inbox work, 2019–2022”
Authors: Jay Holmgren, Nate Apathy, Jennie Crews, Tait Shanafelt.
More posts featuring Robert Miller.