The following article appeared in the May 23, 2019 issue of the HIMSS Clinical Informatics Insights newsletter. A portion of it has been posted here with permission.

Last year, a colleague of mine wrote an apology to clinicians on behalf of all EHR vendors for the pain we’ve put them through. It resonated with many readers, who have soured on the overly hopeful messages of clinical and business transformation coming from the industry. It’s important for all of us to honestly acknowledge where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do to restore the confidence of EHR users — particularly clinicians, whose lives have been irrevocably changed, for better and for worse, by the computerization of healthcare.

Over the past decade, social media has made a huge impact on the way people communicate and stay engaged with what’s happening in the world. More healthcare consumers are using social platforms to learn about their conditions and providers, as well as to give feedback and advice in real time. But what about healthcare providers? Is spending time on social really worth it for them? 

It’s no secret that one of the biggest challenges for doctors in healthcare today is physician burnout.

An often cited NEJM study found that physicians routinely take 1–2 hours of EHR/paperwork home each night, an activity commonly referred to as “pajama time”. But what can be done? With properly developed EHR software, you can avoid a significant portion of these physician burnout issues.

Recently, at MEDITECH’s Physician and CIO forum, I sat down with John Lynn, the editor and founder of Healthcare Scene, and also the founder of two conferences, Expo.Health and the Healthcare IT Marketing and PR.

September is National Recovery Month — a time to recognize the more than 11 million Americans who are struggling with opioid addiction. This massive problem has grown exponentially over the years and, unfortunately, seems to be the new norm.

It’s up to EHR vendors to create solutions that make doctors’ work easier, and give them some much-needed time back. But what doctors do with that time is up to them — so we asked members of our Physician Advisory Committee to share how they like to spend that extra time they’re getting back from their MEDITECH EHR.

As caregivers, we all fall victim to “alert fatigue,” when the sheer number of alerts a clinician receives causes them to unknowingly miss important safety warnings. Ironically, all these alerts that are meant to improve patient safety can cause workers to become desensitized and potentially miss important warnings; from incessant smartphone buzzing, to tablet chimes or the blinking red indicators of your EHR.

Clinician burnout is a topic we’ve covered in detail here on the MEDITECH blog, and for good reason. Long nights of excessive documentation are taking time away from clinicians, interfering with their relationships with patients.

We’ve compiled some recommendations from clinicians and industry leaders on how to address staff burnout. 

We’ve all sat through meetings where important tasks are discussed, but when it comes time to delegate the work or follow-up afterward, things get lost in the shuffle. This is especially common for those of us working in a hectic Emergency Department.

A hot topic of conversation in the last few months has been the Annals of Family Medicine study observing that primary care physicians spend an average of 86 minutes of “pajama time” each night catching up on work from the day.

This study was co-written by researchers from the AMA, which brought to mind their 8 EHR Usability Principles that were published in 2014. At the time these principles were published, MEDITECH was delivering Expanse to our first early adopters, having had the foresight to see what was coming and redesign our software at a time when others were continuing to just add functionality on top of existing workflows.