Table 2.
GPs’ work activities recorded in time–motion data over 238 hours of practice in 61 clinical sessions
| Task category | Tasks, n | Proportion of all tasks (95% CI) | Category-specific task timea | Proportion of total observed time (95% CI) | Tasks in category disrupted by operational failures, n | Proportion of operational failures that disrupted a task in this category (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct care | 6214 | 80.9 (80.0 to 81.8) | 172:24:14 | 72.4 (70.2 to 74.6) | 259 | 68.0 (63.3 to 72.7) |
| Clinical paperwork | 767 | 10.0 (9.3 to 10.7) | 30:32:52 | 12.8 (11.4 to 14.2) | 57 | 15.0 (11.4 to 18.6) |
| Interactions | 280 | 3.6 (3.2 to 4.1) | 28:19:37 | 11.9 (9.7 to 14.1) | 40 | 10.5 (7.4 to 13.6) |
| Internet use | 103 | 1.3 (1.1 to 1.6) | 2:18:08 | 1.0 (0.7 to 1.2) | 9 | 2.4 (0.9 to 3.9) |
| Operational failures | 381 | 5.0 (4.5 to 5.4) | 9:12:18 | 3.9 (3.2 to 4.5) | 16 | 4.2 (2.2 to 6.2) |
| Home visits | 4 | 0.1 (0.0 to 0.1) | 2:48:33 | 1.2 (−0.2 to 2.5) | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 7749b | 100.9b | 245:35:42c | 103.2c | 381 | 100.1 |
a
Recorded in hours, minutes, seconds.
b
Total number exceeds total tasks observed (n = 7679) as some tasks included components of >2 main categories.
c
Total time exceeds total observation time (238 hours) because of multitasking involving >2 main categories.