Otolaryngology resident clinic participation and attending electronic health record efficiency—A user activity logs study

OBJECTIVES: In an era of increasing electronic health record (EHR) use monitoring and optimization, this study aims to quantify resident contributions and measure the effect of otolaryngology resident coverage in clinic on attending otolaryngologist EHR usage. METHODS: In one academic otolaryngology department, monthly attending provider efficiency profile metrics, data collected by the EHR vendor (Epic Systems Corporation) between January and June 2019 were accessed. Using weekly resident schedules, resident coverage of attending outpatient clinics was categorized by junior (post‐graduate year [PGY] 1‐3) and senior levels (PGY‐4 through fellows) and correlated with attending EHR metrics using linear mixed effect models. RESULTS: Thirteen attending otolaryngologists on average spent 58.8 minutes per day interacting with the EHR. In modeling, one day of trainee clinic coverage was associated with a 22 minutes reduction (95% CI [−37, −6]) in total daily attending EHR time and a 12 minutes reduction (95% CI [−21, −3]) in per day note time (P < .05). When stratifying by trainee level, senior coverage was associated with significantly reduced total daily time in EHR, per day time in clinical review, notes, and orders, as well as per appointment time in notes and clinical review (P < .05). Junior coverage was only associated with reduced per day note time (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Increasing resident clinic coverage was inversely related to attending time spent in the EHR and writing notes. Resident contributions to EHR workflows and hospital system productivity should continue to be studied and considered in EHR use measurement studies. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 4.