A new article in the magazine. Applied Clinical Informatics seeks to clarify and standardize the concept of documentation burden in all health professions.
The review was written by AMIA 25×5 Working Group members Deborah Levy, MD, MPH, MS, Jennifer Withall, Ph.D., and colleagues.
The AMIA 25×5 Working Group is charged with reducing the excessive documentation burden to 25 percent of the current state. In addition to standardizing necessary definitions, the working group uses data collected through surveys to measure and trend perceived documentation burden among all healthcare professionals who document patient care in the EHR. The TrendBurden open dataset is available for academic and clinical research.
The authors note that, until now, documentation burden has lacked a precise and universally accepted definition. They say a clear standardized definition is crucial to align efforts to reduce both “DocuBurden” and excessive DocBurden, as well as to track progress toward this goal. This scoping review presents an inclusive and interprofessional standardized definition of DocBurden, providing a foundation for future research, initiatives and policies. Additionally, it improves clarity on the evolving discourse surrounding DocBurden overreach within the US healthcare system.
The goal of the study was to align efforts to reduce DocBurden, such as the AMIA 25×5 Task Force Initiative and the National Burden Reduction Collaborative, with other national initiatives targeting physician well-being and patient safety by providing a standardized definition necessary documentation upload for health professionals. .
“While there is a large amount of gray and peer-reviewed literature, not all stakeholders consistently talk about documentation burden,” said Sarah Rossetti, RN, Ph.D., chair of the AMIA 25×5 Working Group, in a release. “It is difficult to move the needle and impactfully reduce the documentation burden when the problem is not universally addressed by all stakeholders. The goal of the 25×5 Task Force from the beginning was to facilitate a standard definition for a more effective conversation about mitigation and reduction of the documentation burden”.
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