Reduction of the burden on physicians through work of clinical engineers: First report on activities of clinical engineers in a general hospital

Abstract

In April 2024, reform of the working practices of physicians was begun to decrease annual overtime to 960 hours or less. Especially, emergency physicians and surgeons work overtime a lot, and the average annual overtime of digestive surgeons in our hospital reached 1,354 hours from FY2018 to FY2022. To solve this problem, clinical engineers have begun to work as scope operators for task shifting since FY2023, and overtime of physicians was reduced to 506.5 hours in FY2023. Scope operators in the clinical engineering department have been involved in 140 surgeries per year. This has contributed to reduction of overtime for physicians, an increase in parallel surgeries, and reduction of the burden on physicians. Clinical engineers are scheduled to begin work in other departments for further contributions to reform of the working practices of physicians.