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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
Physician Burnout &
Electronic Medical Records
By Dr. Jayesh Shah, 2016 BCMS President
Are you a physician who has to save charting until the end of ber of doctors. It has forced many doctors to retire early because
the day? Or until your office staff has left for the day, and you of continued frustrations.
are still finishing up your charting till late in the evening? And
by the time you reach home, your kids are already asleep and Let us help these struggling doctors collectively. Let us ask each
your spouse is upset because you came home late again? And then hospital system and physician practice to find out doctors who
you still have to log on from home for a couple more hours to are working on documentation till late in the evening or from
finish up charting? home at night. I am sure there are doctors in each hospital and
in each specialty who finish their work on time and are able to
My physician friends, if you are in any one of these scenarios, leave the clinic at the same time when their last patient is seen.
you are not alone.
It is important that physician leaders who are doing well with
This year, in the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report, 46 per- EMR help other colleagues who are struggling to decrease physi-
cent of all physicians responded that they have experienced cian burnout. All physicians should be able to go home on time
burnout, which is a substantial increase since the Medscape 2013 and spend quality time with their family so that they can recharge
Lifestyle Report, in which burnout was reported by slightly fewer their batteries for a brighter next day.
than 40 percent of respondents.
Let your physician colleagues know if you are struggling with
Every time there is a survey of a group of physicians asking, EMR. It may not be a bad idea to hire a scribe or try voice-recog-
“What are the top three reasons in your practice day that makes nition software such as Dragon. Let EMR not be the reason for
your life difficult and increases your feeling of burnout?”, elec- your burnout. Bexar County Medical Society has a physician re-
tronic medical records or EMRs and other documentation issues habilitation committee that works with physician burnout issues.
ALWAYS make the list. This is true regardless of specialty without Texas Medical Association also has several programs to help with
exception. An EMR is a digital version of a paper chart that con- physician burnout issues.
tains all of a patient’s medical history from one practice and is
used by providers for diagnosis and treatment. Physicians deserve to be healthy and happy so that they can
provide good health care for the community.
The problem with EMR is that it is designed by people who
have never seen a patient. EMR and other documentation issues Stay well!
continue to cause a huge burnout problem for a significant num-
With Regards,
Dr. Jayesh Shah
8 San Antonio Medicine • March 2016
