Abstract
The purpose of this study was to elucidate the relationship between the time spent by physicians performing clerical work and that spent by physicians operating electronic medical records (EMR). A questionnaire survey was conducted. The participants of this survey were physicians of 6 of 14 corporate hospitals that applied the support program to engage medical office assistants from Tokushima prefecture. Of 127 physicians, 63 responded. In 3 of 6 hospitals maintaining EMR, physicians spent 198.7 min/day doing clerical work including 53.1 min operating EMR. In the other 3 hospitals not maintaining EMR, physicians spent 140.1 min/day performing clerical work including 16.3 min of writing medical charts and slips. This study showed a weak correlation between the time spent by physicians performing only clerical work and that spent by physicians operating EMR (r=0.42). Time spent operating EMR consisted mainly of that spent on medical records for outpatients (27.6 min). The operating time showed no significant differences with respect to physicians' positions. No significant differences were observed in this time with respect to internal medicine and surgery. In conclusion, this study shows that operating EMR is a major part of physicians' workload. Hence, clerical work should be allocated to medical office assistants.
