Physicians spend about one-fourth of their time on administrative tasks, many of which could be performed by nonphysician staff. What's more, all of the record-keeping has a big impact on how much doctors enjoy the job. And it's not positive.
Those are the major findings in a published by , and colleagues in Academic Medicine.
It was based on survey results from 1,774 clinically-active members of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization who answered a variety of questions about administrative work, demographic information and the like.
There was a wide variation in administrative demands by specialty. Women spent more time on them than men, and emergency doctors spent about half as much time as their peers in primary care.
Obtaining prior authorizations, reconciling medications, meeting board recertification requirements and handling ambulatory clinical documentation drew the most ire. More than half of doctors considered those tasks particularly burdensome. Respondents said that other, nonmedical staff are well equipped to handle medication reconciliation and prior authorization.
Some 65% of respondents said administrative duties affected their ability to deliver high-quality care, and 60% said it hurt their focus during patient encounters. Just 30% of respondents said they had enough administrative support -- a drop of 20 percentage points in two years.
So it's not a big surprise that the study found an association between job satisfaction and the amount of time spent on administrative tasks.
To address the issues, authors suggested hiring nonmedical staff to assist with tasks and called for medical organizations to reduce the requirements they impose.
"Our findings confirm that the amount of time physicians spend on administrative work has a serious effect on physician well-being and may be contributing to high rates of physician burnout," the authors wrote.