Sex Differences in Medical Specialist Physicians’ Electronic Health Record In-Basket Workloads and the Implications for Compensation and Equity: Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

TL;DR

Female physicians handle more administrative tasks per unit of clinical work compared to male physicians, which may affect compensation and equity.

Contribution

This study reveals sex differences in the administrative workload of physicians relative to clinical productivity.

Findings

Female physicians have a higher in-basket workload per relative value unit compared to male physicians.

The findings suggest potential inequities in workload distribution and compensation between sexes in medical specialties.

Abstract

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we assessed sex differences in in-basket messages generated by outpatient workflows among internal medicine specialists as compared to relative value units; we found that female physicians had a greater burden of in-basket work for each unit of paid clinical care.