Physicians are no strangers to long workdays. In addition to the hours spent seeing patients, there's a significant amount of time dedicated to administrative duties, notably clinical documentation. A recent study uncovered a worrying trend: a substantial percentage of physicians are spending considerable amounts of time on documentation outside of normal office hours.
Fortunately, there's a solution that can help reduce this burden – our application, FreeTime™. Designed with physicians in mind, FreeTime aims to restore balance and eliminate the burden of after-hours documentation by making use of data already available in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR).
The Invisible Hours
An MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) study titled "Distribution of Hours per Day That Office-Based Primary Care and Specialist Care Physicians Spent Outside Normal Office Hours Documenting Clinical Care in Their Medical Record System – United States, 2019" shed light on this issue. The findings are alarming: 91.0% of office-based physicians are devoting time outside normal office hours to documentation. The time spent is as follows:
- 17.0% spent less than 1 hour
- 41.4% spent 1-2 hours
- 24.0% spent more than 2 hours but less than 4 hours
- 8.6% spent more than 4 hours per day
These "invisible hours" are not just a few minutes here and there. For many physicians, they add up to hours of extra work each day, time that could be spent with family, on self-care, or in leisure. This is where FreeTime steps in to change the game.
FreeTime: Restoring Balance
FreeTime is an application designed to significantly reduce, if not completely eliminate, the need for after-hours documentation. It makes innovative use of the data collected from patients and already stored in the EMR. By planning the visit and creating a comprehensive note based on this data, Free Time alleviates the need for physicians to spend hours on documentation after work.
Our goal is to give those hours back to the physicians. With FreeTime, physicians can focus on providing quality patient care during office hours and reclaim their personal time after hours.
The Impact of FreeTime
By reducing the burden of after-hours documentation, FreeTime aims to improve the overall well-being of physicians. Less time spent on administrative tasks means more time for rest, recuperation, and personal activities. In the long run, this can lead to decreased feelings of burnout, increased job satisfaction, and improved patient care.
The time for action is now. FreeTime is more than just an application; it's a step towards reforming the system and improving the lives of physicians. Because when our healthcare providers are at their best, everyone benefits. So, let's give them their time back. Let's give them FreeTime.