Primary care physicians (PCPs) spend an average of 61.8 hours per week caring for a patient panel, according to a study published online Oct. 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Lisa S. Rotenstein, M.D., from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional, observational study to estimate the yearly work effort involved for PCPs in caring for a patient panel in 33 clinics in the Mass General Brigham health system. Participants included 406 PCPs who delivered care for at least nine months in 2021.

The researchers found that for a 1.0-clinical full-time-equivalent physician assuming a 46-week work year, median work effort was 2,844.3 yearly hours or 61.8 weekly hours for a full-time PCP, translating to a median of 1.7 hours/patient/year.

On average, part-time PCPs spent more time per patient than full-time PCPs. Associations with greater yearly PCP time expenditure per patient were seen for patient medical advice request volume and certain panel characteristics, including older average age, medical complexity, and percentage of patients with Medicaid.

“Our median estimates of 2,844 yearly and 62 weekly hours exceed prior estimates of a 43-hour work week for family physicians and a 51-hour work week for PCPs in general,” the authors write. “This is potentially due to net new work introduced by the EHR (electronic health record) over the past decade and a half.”

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