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Last month, a group of investigators from the American Academy of Family Physicians and the University of Wisconsin led by Holman (1) published a study entitled, "The myth of standardized workflow in primary care." The researchers directly observed 20 primary care physician (PCP) visits and coded the usual tasks physicians perform during a visit. For some physicians, they observed 2 encounters to see if individual physicians followed a consistent pattern. What they found won't surprise any of you:
"... We found no consistent workflows when analyzing visits individually or by PCP, or visits conducted at clinics with or without an [electronic medical record (EMR)]. The workflow for tasks is dictated not by the...