National Survey of Pediatric Care Providers: Assessing Time and Impact of Coding and Documentation in Physician Practice

Background. Documentation and billing/coding are essential to medical practice. Physicians spend significant time documenting to meet coding and medicolegal requirements, potentially reducing time for patient care and learning. We sought to assess time spent charting in pediatric practice and provider understanding and comfort level regarding billing/coding. Methods. An anonymous web-based survey was emailed to members of American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Pediatric Trainees practicing in the United States. Results. A total of 601 trainees responded to the survey. Thirty-seven percent of trainees spent more than half of patient encounter time documenting in outpatient settings while 62% (P < .01) in inpatient settings. There was a positive correlation between trainees’ apprehension about documentation and reporting increased stress due to documentation (r = 0.32, P < 0.001). Sixty-two percent respondents had no prior training of billing/coding, and >70% feel necessity of including billing/coding in the medical curriculum (P < 0.0001). Conclusions. Our study highlights increasing burden of documentation in practice. Majority of pediatric trainees feel the need to including billing/coding skills as a part of medical curriculum.