Same patient, same doctor, 28% more likely admitted when the doctor is overwhelmed
Doctors ordered more tests under higher cognitive load, but less precise ones, meaning more effort produced less information.
What happened
When emergency room doctors are busy, they order more tests and admit 28% more patients than when they are not busy. This happens even for patients with the exact same condition, which means hospitals are paying for more admissions than necessary.
Why it matters
Hospitals have long known that busy doctors make different decisions. But now there is a specific number: a 28% increase in admissions for the same patient type. This means hospitals can no longer ignore the direct financial cost of physician workload on patient outcomes and resource use.
The signal
Hospital systems focused on reducing unnecessary admissions will now have to reckon with scheduling as the upstream cause. Expect workload-management tools to get rebranded as clinical quality initiatives within the next two to three budget cycles.
The researchers used granular electronic medical record data from many clinical interactions to discover that busy doctors order more tests. They published this in an academic journal.