TABLE 1.
Descriptive statistics of sample, overall, and stratified by specialty group
| Overall | Primary care | Medical specialties | Surgical specialties | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of physicians | 203,728 | 66,968 | 80,267 | 56,493 |
| Physician burden and efficiency measures | ||||
| % of visits closed in the same day | 72.1 (29.7) | 76.5 (26.5) | 66.8 (32.2) | 74.5 (28.5) |
| Time in notes per visit | 9.1 (10.5) | 9.3 (9.4) | 11.6 (11.7) | 5.5 (8.8) |
| Time outside scheduled hours per visit | 4.6 (5.5) | 4.8 (5.7) | 5.7 (6.1) | 2.6 (3.5) |
| Unscheduled days with any EHR use per week | 2.3 (1.0) | 2.0 (0.8) | 2.3 (1.0) | 2.5 (1.0) |
| Documentation length (characters per note) | 4835.5 (3045.3) | 4199.8 (2208.1) | 6128.8 (3574.3) | 3751.5 (2341.5) |
| Note composition (characters per note) | ||||
| Copy/paste | 749.5 (1580.8) | 245.8 (747.9) | 1433.7 (2171.2) | 374.6 (737.7) |
| SmartTools | 1820.0 (1527.0) | 1889.6 (1413.4) | 2070.3 (1674.8) | 1381.9 (1329.9) |
| Manual text | 363.0 (419.8) | 330.3 (347.8) | 472.9 (514.7) | 245.6 (288.7) |
| NoteWriter | 208.8 (442.7) | 350.6 (533.9) | 158.5 (419.4) | 112.3 (286.5) |
| Transcription | 37.7 (335.1) | 11.0 (188.0) | 54.0 (398.1) | 46.2 (369.4) |
| Voice recognition/dictation | 227.9 (455.8) | 168.9 (371.0) | 268.6 (520.7) | 239.8 (440.8) |
| Average patient age | 48.6 (19.0) | 44.1 (21.3) | 51.4 (18.8) | 50.1 (15.2) |
| Total weekly visits | 35.2 (26.3) | 44.8 (27.4) | 27.3 (23.1) | 34.9 (25.5) |
| % of E/M visits billed to Level 1 | 0.7 (4.5) | 0.4 (2.7) | 0.7 (4.5) | 1.2 (6.0) |
| % of E/M visits billed to Level 2 | 3.4 (8.0) | 2.7 (6.3) | 2.2 (6.6) | 5.9 (10.5) |
| % of E/M visits billed to Level 3 | 20.7 (18.8) | 24.1 (17.3) | 15.4 (17.9) | 24.1 (19.8) |
| % of E/M visits billed to Level 4 | 27.7 (22.7) | 29.3 (20.3) | 34.3 (24.7) | 16.6 (17.8) |
| % of E/M visits billed to Level 5 | 7.7 (14.8) | 3.6 (9.1) | 13.8 (18.9) | 3.9 (10.0) |
| US census region (n, %) | ||||
| Midwest | 57,965 (28) | 19,182 (29) | 22,399 (28) | 16,384 (29) |
| Northeast | 45,318 (22) | 13,386 (20) | 20,210 (25) | 11,722 (21) |
| South | 50,136 (25) | 15,707 (23) | 19,785 (25) | 14,644 (26) |
| West | 50,309 (25) | 18,693 (28) | 17,873 (22) | 13,743 (24) |
| Organizational type (n, %) | ||||
| Ambulatory‐only | 14,492 (7) | 7043 (11) | 4067 (5) | 3382 (6) |
| Hospital and clinic facilities | 179,459 (88) | 56,083 (84) | 72,893 (91) | 50,483 (89) |
| Other | 9777 (5) | 3842 (6) | 3307 (4) | 2628 (5) |
Note: All values are mean (SD) unless noted otherwise.
Abbreviations: EHR, electronic health record; E/M, evaluation and management.