Gender Differences in Electronic Health Record Usage Among Surgeons

Abstract

Importance: Understanding gender differences in electronic health record (EHR) use among surgeons is crucial for addressing potential disparities in workload, compensation, and physician well-being.

Objective: To investigate gender differences in EHR usage patterns.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study examined data from an EHR system (Epic Signal) at a single academic hospital from January to December 2022. Participants included 224 attending surgeons with patient encounters in the outpatient setting. Statistical analysis was performed from May 2023 to April 2024.

Exposures: Surgeon's gender.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome variables were progress note length, documentation length, time spent in medical records, and time spent documenting patient encounters. Continuous variables were summarized with median and IQR and assessed via the Kruskal-Wallis test. Categorical variables were summarized using proportion and frequency and compared using the χ2 test. Multivariate linear regression was used with primary EHR usage variables as dependent variables and surgeon characteristics as independent variables.

Results: This study included 222 529 patient encounters by 224 attending surgeons, of whom 68 (30%) were female and 156 (70%) were male. The median (IQR) time in practice was 14.0 (7.8-24.3) years. Male surgeons had more median (IQR) appointments per month (78.3 [39.2-130.6] vs 57.8 [25.7-89.8]; P = .005) and completed more medical records per month compared with female surgeons (43.0 [21.8-103.9] vs 29.1 [15.9-48.1]; P = .006). While there was no difference in median (IQR) time spent in the EHR system per month (664.1 [301.0-1299.1] vs 635.0 [315.6-1192.0] minutes; P = .89), female surgeons spent more time logged into the system both outside of 7am to 7pm (36.4 [7.8-67.6] vs 14.1 [5.4-52.2] min/mo; P = .05) and outside of scheduled clinic hours (134.8 [58.9-310.1] vs 105.2 [40.8-214.3] min/mo; P = .05). Female surgeons spent more median (IQR) time per note (4.8 [2.6-7.1] vs 2.5 [0.9-4.2] minutes; P < .001) compared with male surgeons. Male surgeons had a higher number of median (IQR) days logged in per month (17.7 [13.8-21.3] vs 15.7 [10.7-19.7] days; P = .03). Female surgeons wrote longer median (IQR) inpatient progress notes (6025.1 [3692.1-7786.7] vs 4307.7 [2808.9-5868.4] characters/note; P = .001) and had increased outpatient document length (6321.1 [4079.9-7825.0] vs 4445.3 [2934.7-6176.7] characters/note; P < .001). Additionally, female surgeons wrote a higher fraction of the notes manually (17% vs 12%; P = .006). After using multivariable linear regression models, male gender was associated with reduced character length for both documentations (regression coefficient, -1106.9 [95% CI, -1981.5 to -232.3]; P = .01) and progress notes (regression coefficient, -1119.0 [95% CI, -1974.1 to -263.9]; P = .01). Male gender was positively associated with total hospital medical records completed (regression coefficient, 47.3 [95% CI, 28.3-66.3]; P < .001). There was no difference associated with gender for time spent in each note, time spent outside of 7 am to 7 pm, or time spent outside scheduled clinic hours.

Conclusions and relevance: This cross-sectional study of EHR data found that female surgeons spent more time documenting patient encounters, wrote longer notes, and spent more time in the EHR system compared with male surgeons. These findings have important implications for understanding the differential burdens faced by female surgeons, including potential contributions to burnout and payment disparities.

Figure 1.. Scatterplots Demonstrate Individual Data Points and Median Values for Clinic Schedule and EHR Usage Variables Stratified by Gender

^aP ≤ .01. ^bP ≤ .05. ^cP ≤ .001.

Figure 2.. Distributions and Scatterplots of Progress Note and Documentation Length Stratified by Gender

^aP ≤ .01. ^bP ≤ .001.