Primary Care Doctors Struggle with Digital Messages, Leading to Burnout

Strategic Insights -

Primary care doctors in America are dealing with overwhelming digital messages from patients, which is contributing to burnout, cutting back on hours, and leaving their practices early. However, a series of studies from the University of Michigan show promise in easing this crisis, and improving both patient care and doctor work lives. The studies focus on the issue of digital messages sent through patient portals and how clinics handle responses within the electronic health record.

Key Takeaways:

  • Women primary care physicians spend more time on patient messages, with 57% of physicians in the study being female, higher than the national average.
  • Women physicians are 60% more likely than men to say that portal messages require more clinical assessment and 76% more likely to report that messages contribute to burnout.
  • Women physicians are twice as likely as men to see the electronic health record system as easy to learn and an asset for patient education.
  • A new innovation, called PACE slots, allows physicians to spend a set amount of time each day handling patient messages outside of regular working hours, reducing the sense of overwhelm.
  • The PACE slots had no impact on the total number of hours spent on digital clinical duties outside regular hours, but physicians' perception of workload improved significantly.
  • Implementing a team-based approach to handle patient messages, leveraging skills of the entire clinic team, reduced messages per physician by 16% and duplicate messages by 62%.

Statistics:

  • 57% of physicians in the study were female, higher than the national average for primary care disciplines.
  • Women physicians spent more time on inputting orders related to patient messages per day.
  • Women physicians were 60% more likely than men to receive messages from patients that were negative or demeaning.
  • 88% of physicians using PACE slots perceived that the slots decreased their "pajama time".
  • 831,000 messages related to 63,500 patients were examined in a study on the team-based approach.
  • 16% reduction in messages per physician and 62% reduction in duplicate messages sent to multiple clinicians at the intervention site.

Sources:

  • Branford et al: The Gender Gap in EHR Workload: A Comparative Analysis of Primary Care Physician In Basket Usage, JGIM, DOI:10.1007/s11606-025-09629-w
  • Lukela et al: Surprisingly Helpful: the Introduction of Portal Practice Slots to Address the Inbasket Explosion, JGIM, DOI:10.1007/s11606-025-09582-8
  • Hadeed et al: Taming the In-Basket-How Two Simple Tools Reduced Portal Message Volume in an Academic Internal Medicine Clinic, JGIM, DOI:10.1007/s11606-025-09478-7