| | JUNE 202019UTLOOKHealthcare Tech The advent of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and the government mandate of its use have brought positives and negatives to the delivery of healthcare and to those that provide it. On the positive side, patient records are easier to access, share, and review. On the negative side, provider productivity has dropped by as much as 20% since the mandate 1 , and providers complain that they have been forced to become more documentarian than physician. 2 Furthermore, for every hour physicians By Michael Docktor, MD, Co-Founder, Dock HealthCXO INSIGHTSShortcomings of the Electronic Health Record in managing the work associated with care (ie. Tasks)provide direct clinical face time to patients, nearly 2 additional hours are spent on EHR and deskwork within the clinic day. 3 Provider (and associated healthcare worker) burnout is becoming epidemic, the whole system is inefficient, and medical errors occur when the necessary, yet tedious administrative elements of patient care fall through the cracks. We've all experienced it ourselves in our own care, calling your PCP's office to see why that prior authorization didn't go through or sending a portal message to your doctor to remind them (again) to submit that referral request.EHRs have been around for decades. They do many things well, but they cannot do all things. Nor should they have to. For many, the cognitive burden of managing the innumerable tasks associated with patient care is one more unwelcome straw put on their backs. Beyond Figure 1: The typical administrative overload of a modern-day physician
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