Real time analysis of psychiatrists' workflow in German hospitals.
BACKGROUND
The increasing administrative workload of German psychiatrists has led to rising dissatisfaction among physicians. Previous studies have assessed job satisfaction by conducting surveys among medical professionals. However, to date, no objective work task analysis has been conducted to investigate the workflow of psychiatrists in Germany.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to evaluate physicians' workflow, to assess the level of work efficiency of German psychiatrists in a real time analysis.


METHODS
A trained observer accompanied 24 psychiatrists throughout complete shifts. A mobile computer was used to record all tasks. All psychiatrists were observed for total of 980:04:15 h.


RESULTS
The average psychiatrist's workday lasted 09:03:19 h (standard deviation, s=01:01:20 h). Internal communication was the most frequently observed main activity (mean=2:58:15 h; s=0:48:10 h). Psychiatrists spent on average 0:52:12 h a day on indirect patient care (s=0:32:50 h; 5.60%). All administrative tasks accounted for roughly 1 h of the average workday (s=0:17:58 h; 10.75%). During the wobservation period, physicians were interrupted 17.37 times a day on average (s=5.81). During the observational period, simultaneous activities were recorded for a total of 17:27:54 h.


CONCLUSIONS
This research is the first to investigate workflow of psychiatrists in German hospitals. Their work was found to be mostly communicative, although administrative work also demanded much of their time. High rates of multitasking and interruptions in the workflow, as seen for the psychiatrists in this study, could lead to possible medical errors, making further investigation of current working conditions necessary.
Mache
Stefanie
S
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Charité- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Free University and Humboldt University, Thielallee 69-73, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Stefanie.mache@charite.de
Kloss
Lisa
L
Heuser
Isabella
I
Klapp
Burghard F
BF
Groneberg
David A
DA
D000328:Adult; D001604:Berlin; D003142:Communication; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*