Team-Based Documentation Can Increase Visit Volume, Cut Documentation Time

High-intensity adopters had reduction in documentation for full postadoption periods and following learning period

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 27, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Physicians who adopt team-based documentation, defined as use of coauthored documentation with another clinical team member, experience increased visit volume and reduced documentation time, according to a study published online Aug. 26 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Nate C. Apathy, Ph.D., from the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park, and colleagues analyzed how electronic health record (EHR) documentation time and visit volume change following adoption of team-based documentation approaches in a national longitudinal cohort study. A total of 18,265 physicians were included: 1,024 adopted team-based documentation support and 17,241 did not.

The researchers found that visit volume increased by 6.0 percent for adopter physicians (2.5 visits/week) and documentation time decreased by 9.1 percent (23.3 minutes/week). Visits per week increased by 10.8 percent and documentation time decreased by 16.2 percent following a 20-week postadoption learning period. Reductions in documentation time for the full postadoption period and following the learning period (−53.9 minutes/week and −72.2 minutes/week [21.0 and 28.1 percent decrease], respectively) were only seen for high-intensity adopters (>40 percent of note text authored by others). No meaningful change in EHR time was seen for low adopters, but a similar increase in visit volume was seen.

“The results of our study may serve as a benchmark for comparison with other documentation burden interventions, including artificial intelligence tools, and suggest that team-based documentation strategies are the rare intervention that has the potential to simultaneously reduce physician burden and boost visit volume when adopted sufficiently,” the authors write.

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