Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Sep;161(17-18):433-40.
doi: 10.1007/s10354-011-0028-1.

Time and motion study of anesthesiologists' workflow in German hospitals

Inka Hauschild  1 , Karin Vitzthum, Burghard F Klapp, David A Groneberg, Stefanie Mache
Affiliations

Time and motion study of anesthesiologists' workflow in German hospitals

Inka Hauschild et al. Wien Med Wochenschr. 2011 Sep.

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate anesthesiologists' workflow in real time.

Methods: Anesthesiologists were observed for a total of 60 workdays. All tasks performed during this time were recorded in real time.

Results: The anesthesiologists were shadowed for a total of 517:16:36 hours. The average workday lasted 08:37:17 hours. Overall they spent 28.5% of each workday on indirect patient care, 14.7% on direct patient care and 18.8% on administrative work. Communication took up 19.9% of anesthesiologists' time, breaks and disruptions 15.2% and other job tasks 2.9%.

Conclusions: The results comprise objective data about the workflow and working conditions in anesthesiology. We found support of the large imbalance between the direct patient care and the heavy administrative workload reported by physicians. These results may be useful in future efforts to improve anesthesiologists' working conditions and workflow optimization.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Med Clin North Am. 2002 Jul;86(4):847-67 - PubMed
    1. Int J Med Inform. 2008 Apr;77(4):235-41 - PubMed
    1. Int J Public Health. 2007;52(1):54-9 - PubMed
    1. Health Policy. 2007 Aug;82(3):357-65 - PubMed
    1. Med J Aust. 2008 May 5;188(9):514-9 - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources