title: Primary care: is there enough time for prevention?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to determine the amount of time required for a primary care physician to provide recommended preventive services to an average patient panel.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used published and estimated times per service to determine the physician time required to provide all services recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), at the recommended frequency, to a patient panel of 2500 with an age and sex distribution similar to that of the US population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To fully satisfy the USPSTF recommendations, 1773 hours of a physician's annual time, or 7.4 hours per working day, is needed for the provision of preventive services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Time constraints limit the ability of physicians to comply with preventive services recommendations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. yarna001@mc.duke.edu
authors.forename: Kimberly S H
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Yarnall
authors.forename: Kathryn I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Pollak
authors.forename: Truls
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Østbye
authors.forename: Katrina M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: J Lloyd
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Michener
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003376:Counseling / Q000600:supply & distribution; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000145:classification / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011322:Primary Prevention; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014481:United States