I recently reviewed a number of physicians' diaries and the like (in connection with a review of an electronic patient-records system).
There are variations in the amount of time they allocate to professional things not specifically related to the care of a patient. Moreover, this distinction is sometimes difficult to make. Patient P has condition C. His doctor D then reads very widely about C. What is this? What portion of it should be charged up to the care of patient P? There are also outside pressures. Board [re]certification every 10 years requires wide reading and preparation. Younger doctors who make hospital rounds with older 'distinguished' colleagues often do some of their reading about their patients' problems defensively, in order to be able to answer the streams of often oblique questions these DCs ask. For a variety of reasons doctors in wholly private practice read less than doctors affiliated with teaching hospitals. Finally, they work long hours, often more than 65 hours/week. Still, The best of them spend more than 25% of their working time "keeping current", as my favorite ID specialist calls it. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
