Paperwork

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SanDiegoSOD

Milk was a bad choice
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Just out of curiosity... how much of your time in the ED is spent on paperwork? Panda usually mentions a 1:3 real work: paperwork ratio, and for the EPs in the hospital that I spent a good deal of time in, it was probably around 1:2. So how many pens do you go through a week?

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I plan to hire someone to follow me around and write down whatever needs to be written down. In fact in retrospect, maybe my no documentation necessary policy was what got me in trouble doing bench research . . .
 
I worked as an ED tech for 2 yrs and it seemed to me that about 70-80% of the EPs time is spent on their butt at the nurses station, either typing reports of haggling with other Dr.s over the phone. It's not a very high patient contact specialty.
 
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In the community, it's a LOT different. About 5 minutes per chart. About 5 minutes to fill out commitment papers. About 2 minutes for a COBRA transfer form.

A lot, if not most, of the BS-but-required paperwork doesn't even pass by my desk. Med and lab orders are either entered by me, or I co-sign the med orders.
 
Scribes are valuable. :D We do all your writing and fetch breakfast/lunch/dinner (if you're buying). :D
 
Maybe we are just spoiled, but our EMR saves us a ton of time. We dictate everything if we wish and do online orders. The only thing we write is medication orders. U-Iowa paid like 75 million for this system and it even allows us to do everything at home except for dictating.
 
I worked as an ED tech for 2 yrs and it seemed to me that about 70-80% of the EPs time is spent on their butt at the nurses station, either typing reports of haggling with other Dr.s over the phone. It's not a very high patient contact specialty.
Yea, I only spend a total of an hour's time with all my patients I see during a twelve hour shift. The rest of the time is spent surfing the internet, SDN, charting, and just chatting with the nurses.

Give me a break. EM is a high patient contact specialty. Most EM docs see a lot of patients during their shift.
 
Yep - Average is 2-2.5 patients per hour. Do the math. That's a ton of patient contact...
 
Our docs that use scribes see 30 to 40 patients per 9 to 10 hour shift. Basically the only paperwork they do is writing scripts or signing their names on the charts. :thumbup:
 
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