Docs plagued by little patient time, misinformation

The vast majority of physicians (88 percent) surveyed for a recent study said that they struggle to balance the business side of medicine with providing quality patient care. Although this finding may not be a big surprise, there was an interesting level of variation among the more than 300 American Medical Association members surveyed regarding the extent to which recent trends in healthcare have affected their practices' efficiency and quality.

For instance, the survey from publishing company Wolters Kluwer Health found that 42 percent of the primary care and specialty physicians surveyed don't believe care is delivered any more efficiently today than it was two years ago. Over a third (37 percent) disagree that the quality of care has increased during this time frame.

Behind this disparity, most likely, is a divergence of attitudes about the role of various technologies at the point of care. For example, half of the physicians surveyed said their practice has embraced technology and clinical decision support tools, and 44 percent admitted they are early in the adoption process. Cost and implementation difficulties were among the top reasons cited for delaying technology adoption.

And while 90 percent of the physicians said that more access to online medical information and resources improved the quality of care at their organization, a fifth said that patients' online health research has "been detrimental, leading to misinformation and incorrect self-diagnosis." In fact, more than half (53 percent) of those surveyed ranked "patient misinformation" as the top barrier to good doctor-patient communication, trumped only by lack of time with patients (78 percent).

Notably, the survey revealed that physicians get their online health information from some of the same sources as patients with search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, ranking second only to medical journals as resources used by physicians.

To learn more:
- read the press release from Wolters Kluwer Health
- see the post from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog

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