Gender differences seen in electronic health record use patterns among surgeons

Female surgeons spend more time documenting patient encounters and write longer notes in electronic health record (EHR) systems than male surgeons, according to a study published online July 23 in JAMA Network Open.

Karen Malacon, from the Stanford University Medical Center in California, and colleagues investigated gender differences in EHR usage patterns among 224 attending surgeons with 222,529 patient encounters in the outpatient setting during 2022.

The researchers found that male surgeons had more median appointments per month (78.3 versus 57.8) and completed more medical records per month versus female surgeons (43.0 versus 29.1). ]

Overall, there was no difference seen in median time spent in the EHR system per month (664.1 versus 635.0 minutes). Male surgeons had a higher number of median days logged in per month (17.7 versus 15.7 days), but female surgeons spent more time logged into the system both outside of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (36.4 versus 14.1 minutes/month) and outside of scheduled clinic hours (134.8 versus 105.2 minutes/month).

Female surgeons also spent more median time per note than male surgeons (4.8 versus 2.5 minutes). Female surgeons wrote longer median inpatient progress notes (6,025.1 versus 4,307.7 characters/note) and also longer outpatient notes (6,321.1 versus 4,445.3 characters/note). In adjusted models, male gender was associated with shorter character length for both documentations and progress notes.

“These findings have important implications for understanding the differential burdens faced by female surgeons, including potential contributions to burnout and payment disparities,” the authors write.

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