This burden, combined with the mounting pressure to see more patients, has resulted in doctors employing shortcuts in an attempt to increase their efficiency and salvage what little personal time they have left. Studies show that the ratio of hours spent with a patient to hours spent on documentation 1:2. “CoPaGA” i.e., Copy ‘n Paste Gone Amok SyndromeĬlear and accurate notes are essential to providing excellent patient care, but problems arise when the documentation system’s top priority appears to be bureaucratic documentation rather than improving patient health outcomes.
In our third and final issue we will cover how the over-complication of the EHR system and its inherent risk of user-error has changed the risk landscape leaving providers at heightened risk of malpractice claims. In the first two installments of our medical malpractice series we discussed the negative impact of current documentation standards on doctor-patient relationships and the associated legal risks. EHRs have added needless obstacles and complication to their daily practice, forcing them to spend a third of their time on administrative tasks which largely do not improve patient care.
