Dr Allan Gibofsky Discusses Factors Cutting Into Patient-Physician Visit Time

Patients and physicians both indicated on a survey that they would like to spend more time on visits, but often this is not feasible for physicians who are burdened with other time-consuming requirements like charting and billing, according to Allan Gibofsky, MD, professor of medicine and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College and an attending rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What opportunities for improvement by physicians were identified in your study on patient and provider surveys?

The study identified that patients would like to spend more time with their physicians, and to a certain extent physicians indicated that they’d like to spend more time with their patients. Sadly, and particularly in the United States, which is the only healthcare system delivery format I can speak to, we have increasing administrative responsibilities on our daily activities that often cut into our ability to spend significant time with our patients.

Now, one could always spend more time, but the fact is we’re limited in what we have available because of charting requirements, administrative requirements, billing requirements, and what have you. All of that imposes on the time that it takes for a visit.