Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 5, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 11, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 4, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Physician Burnout and the Electronic Health Record Leading up to and During The First Year of COVID-19: A Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Physician burnout was first identified in 1974, and it has been particularly prevalent during the first year of the pandemic.
Objective:
To objectively analyze the literature over the last five years for empirical evidence of burnout incident to the EHR and to identify barriers, facilitators, associated patient satisfaction to using the EHR to improve symptoms of burnout.
Methods:
No human subjects were used in this review, however 100% of participants in studies analyzed were adult physicians. Four research databases and one targeted journal were queried for studies commensurate with the objective statement from January 1, 2016 through January 31st 2021 (n=25).
Results:
The hours spent in documentation and workflow are responsible for the sense of loss of autonomy, lack of work-life balance, lack of control of one’s schedule, cognitive fatigue, a general loss of autonomy and poor relationships with colleagues. Researchers have identified training, local customization of templates and workflow, and the use of scribes to alleviate the administrative burden of the EHR and decreased symptoms of burnout.
Conclusions:
The solutions provided in the literature only addressed two of the three factors, workflow and documentation time, but not the third, usability. Practitioners and administrators should focus on the former two factors because they are within their sphere of control. EHR vendors should focus on empirical evidence to identify usability features with the greatest impact to improve. Researchers should design experiments to explore solutions that address all three factors of the EHR that contribute to burnout.
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Copyright
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