By Chelsea Frajerman Pardes
An institutional audit of the electronic health record system used by internal medicine house staff found that residents spent more than 30% of their time using the system, according to data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
David Ouyang, MD, in the department of internal medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues reported that the majority of time was spent reviewing medical charts. 
“In addition to direct patient contact, residents are responsible for communication, order entry, data review and documentation,” Ouyang and colleagues wrote. “With more patient care being facilitated through computers today, there is increasing concern that little time remains for direct patient contact and education.”
The researchers analyzed the EPIC EHR system, retrospectively evaluating time-stamped actions entered between June 25, 2013 and June 29, 2014 and linking them to residency scheduling information. Data included 4,327,708 unique actions that had been performed by 91 residents.