Hospitalist Gender Differences in Electronic Communication and Workload

Female outpatient physicians spend more time on documentation and receive more patient-initiated messages than their male counterparts, resulting in greater electronic health record (EHR) use. Is this also the case for female physicians caring for hospitalized patients?

In a single-center retrospective study, investigators measured EHR and secure messaging use by 97 hospitalists and 108 upper-level residents on a hospitalist rotation, stratifying by gender. On average each day, participants worked 9.4 hours, spent 41% of their time in the EHR and 6% in chat, and sent or received an average of 105 messages.