To investigate the workload of healthcare providers in the EHR systems and assess gender-based discrepancies in EHR utilization.

The introduction of Electronic Health Records (EHR) system has improved healthcare quality, operational efficiency, and error reduction. However, this has also led to increased clinical work time, especially after work hours, potentially contributing to physician burnout. Some studies show that female providers face a higher risk of burnout compared to their male counterparts, with one of the driving reasons being additional time on EHR.

In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the EPIC Signal data of 76 providers in the Neurology and Pediatric Neurology departments at a single academic center in Houston, Texas from January 2022 to May 2023.

Of the 76 providers, 41 (53.9%) were women, and 35 (46.1%) were men. On average, providers spent 32.0 minutes per day (range 0.0-193.2) on EHR-related tasks during non-standard hours (pajama time) and 5.9 hours per month (range 0.0-35.1) on unscheduled days. Female providers spent more time on EHR activities during off-hours (38.5 vs 19.4 minutes per day) and on unscheduled days (6.2 vs 5.4 hours per month) compared to male providers. Regarding in-basket messages, female providers spent an average of 8.0 minutes per day (range 0.0- 31.5), while male providers spent an average of 4.6 minutes per day (range 0.0-21.4). Providers received an average of 10.6 messages per day (range 0.0-51.2). Among the messages, 21.5% pertained to direct patient care including patient calls and medical advice, and 7.4% of messages were staff-related messages.

These findings suggest that female providers invest more time in EHR-related tasks, particularly during non-standard hours, potentially contributing to the observed gender disparities in physician burnout rates in other studies. This emphasizes the growing need to address these disparities and mitigate EHR-related workload to foster a sustainable and equitable healthcare environment.