Assistant Professor Adam Rule is co-investigator on a 1-year, $50,000 grant from the American Medical Association (AMA). The grant, Off the Clock: Validating Measures of After-hours EHR Work in Primary Care at UW Health, aims to develop better ways to measure the time physicians spend documenting patient care outside normal working hours. Congratulations, Dr. Rule!
Physicians routinely stay after clinic hours or log back into their electronic health records (EHRs) late at night to finish documenting patient visits. This “after-hours” time in the EHR has been linked to higher rates of burnout – the prolonged stress leading many physicians to reduce hours or leave healthcare altogether. The methods currently used to measure EHR use after-hours are imprecise and may systematically under count the after-hours work of physicians who have non-traditional clinic schedules (e.g., who work part-time). Developing more accurate measures will help us identify which providers face the most after-hours EHR work, and which interventions are most effective in reducing it.
The grant is led by Dr. Brian Arndt, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Mark Micek, Dr. Christy Shafer, and Jeff Baltus are also co-investigators on the grant.