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Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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helloitsodin said:
I was watching a documentary on Netflix, Code Black. How close to the truth is it? How much time do you actually work on documentation and paperwork vs. actually attending to patients?

Thanks!
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I just started my rotations for third year...
A lot. Not just attendings either.
 
I have shadowed a primary care physician for around 100 hours, and I would say out of his 9 hour day he does probably 4 hours of paperwork, 1 hour for lunch, and 4 hours of being face to face with patients. Hope this helps!
 
Shadow and find out for yourself! Id say 15-30% of a typical day was admin/notes/dictation for the docs I’ve shadowed.

A radonc i shadowed once joked to me after dictating a note: “forget everything I did with the patient. If you can write a good note, you’re a good doctor.”
 
helloitsodin said:
I was watching a documentary on Netflix, Code Black. How close to the truth is it? How much time do you actually work on documentation and paperwork vs. actually attending to patients?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I haven't watched code black so I can't say how accurate the show is. But in terms of paperwork, you do a lot of paperwork. Thankfully, in my field of Anesthesia we aren't burdened as much as other fields with paperwork and can focus on the patient at hand in the OR. We have electronic charting that helps with taking and documenting the patient's vitals every 5 minutes. We do have to do preops when we see patients but to the extent of filling out multiple forms to submit to insurance companies etc... thankfully no. Those who are in FM, IM, gen surg, etc tend to have it worse in that regard.
 
I have a question related to this one. I haven't shadowed in the US yet but I've heard that there's a lot more EHR and less pen and paper work there; even when talking face to face with the patient. Is that true? I'm only familiar with Europe.
 
ebno said:
I have a question related to this one. I haven't shadowed in the US yet but I've heard that there's a lot more EHR and less pen and paper work there; even when talking face to face with the patient. Is that true?
Click to expand...
Yes it's true. And it takes (me) more time to use the EHR than it did to write notes.
 
I'm an EM attending.

In general: more pressure to see more, do more, in less time. Documentation difficult to complete by shift's end in even a moderately busy place (combination of volume and EMR).

Absolutely disagree with having "a lot" of time for notes. If you do, it's because you're a student not seeing 15+ patients concurrently as an attending. Smaller EDs or lower-volume EDs will offer a lot of note time, yes.

Scribes and dictation services help.
 
I haven't watched code black but I did just finish residency (my attending job doesn't start until Sept for me, gotta study for them IM boards) and this is largely dependent on what specialty you will be in. Surgeon notes are much shorter than say an FM/IM/Psych (omg are these notes long)/Peds/PMR etc... As an IM resident the majority of your day on a floor service is unfortunately documentation, calling consults, annoying the pharmacy, some social work stuff, unless you're admitting patients that day. That's just the necessary evil. It's a delicate balance between wanting to dedicate enough face to face time with your patients but also not leaving super late every day because you didn't finish your work. Also, your attending will probably not like it if your notes are not done by early afternoon so they can addend them.
 
EHR (Epic) the norm so yes more keying for what may have taken a few minutes tops when it was 1) all scribbling down on paper (missed the WNL check boxes) and 2) none of crazy government/regulatory detailing now required.

But, learning around the system does speed up the work, thanks to smart phrases, templates, short cuts, and some "generalizations" on the pasted notes. Of course, working at KP, there are no insurance or additional forms to deal with.
 
I try to see all my patients before noon as a hospitalist. . . . so about half my day is spent sitting in front of a computer, but lots of that is making phone calls, not just all note writing/documenting.
 
I spend a lot of time on documentation, telephone calls and responding to e-mail-or-text-or-whatever messages. It takes me more time to prepare EHR notes even if I have a template which I may not want to use anyway.

The good news about EHRs: I don't have to worry about trying to read illegible or indecipherable handwritten notes because notes entered into the EHR database appear legible on the tablet to everyone.
 
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