Time-motion studies pinpoint where hospitalists could save time
You know your day is a nonstop stream of interruptions, pages and patient questions, with endless rounds of orders and documentation. But two new time-motion studies, both published in the July-August issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine, pinpoint exactly how hospitalists spend their day.
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The first study, which had observers shadow hospitalists at Chicago’s Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, came up with these sobering figures: Hospitalists spend less than one-fifth of their day (17%) on direct patient care. Instead, they spend twothirds (64%) on indirect patient care, with communication taking up a good 25% of their day.