Writing Task: Solution

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Problem Section

EHR Workflow Inefficiency and Clinical Burnout: A Problem Analysis

Leidylin Guerrero

Keiser University

ENC4313-Research Writing

Diane McMurry, Ph.D.

20 June 2026

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EHR Workflow Inefficiency and Clinical Burnout: A Problem Analysis

The electronic health record (EHR) was intended to facilitate care coordination and

access to information, but it has inadvertently created a paradox that it is one of the leading

causes of clinician burnout. Hospital and outpatient nurses, doctors, and advanced practice

providers report that a lot of their time is spent on paperwork instead of patient care. The study

by Wu et al. (2024) reveals that the number of healthcare professionals experiencing burnout due

to EHR use is 40.4% in the pooled prevalence of burnout across 37 studies, with a total of more

than 66,000 participants. Based on these statistical data, there is evidence regarding the

magnitude of the problem. In the field of nursing informatics, this issue is a pressing one. The

discipline has a unique ability to study and optimize the relationship between clinicians, data,

and technology. However, with the growing pressure of workforce shortages, it's no longer

viable to ignore EHR-related burnout. The focus of the paper is to establish the main causes and

offer an effective strategy towards addressing the most implementable aspect of the issue.

Contributing Factors Analysis

The EHR’s inefficiency in workflow is caused by clinical burnout, and this takes place in

three ways. These include overload in the documentation, usability of the EHR, and the patient-

provider relationship.

Research-Supported Contributing Factors

The key contributory factor is the burden linked to the documentation. Alobayli et al.

(2023) study reveals that time on EHR activities and usability problems play a huge role in the

reported stress and burnout experienced by the clinician. Doctors are spending several hours

completing their paperwork after work. Consequently, it deprives them of their time and leaves

them with an extended workday. The argument above is supported by Wu et al. (2024) whose

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findings reveal that healthcare providers involved in the performance of EHR tasks outside their

allotted hours on the documentation were 2.43 times more likely to report that they experienced

burnout than those who did not.

Such burdens are increased as a result of the poor usability of EHRs. Billing and

regulatory compliance systems have been designed instead of the clinical workflow. As a result,

there is a development of interfaces that provide redundant data entry and time-consuming

workarounds. Poor presentation of the clinical information and complex user interfaces result in

cognitive overload, hence burnout (Asgari et al., 2024). If clinicians are unable to work

successfully within systems, they have more to think about during each encounter, which takes

away resources from complex clinical thinking and patient engagement.

The third aspect is the disruption to the EHR documentation that affects the existing

relationship between the provider and patient. The real-time charting during visitation leads to

the division of the attention of the clinician between the client and the screen, thus causing

degradation of the communication quality. For clinicians with a professional identity based on

the therapeutic relationship, such erosion results in moral distress. This condition is associated

with emotional fatigue or exhaustion and burnout.

How These Factors Interact and Contribute to the Problem:

These three contribute to a compounding cycle. The burden caused by the documentation

leads to the extension of the working hours, resulting in poor usability that results in challenging

and longer documentation tasks, and the demands for the chart during clinical encounters and

visitation fractures. Alobayli et al. (2023) study shows high stress in the hospital setting that

worsens EHR workload, leading to burnout. Wu et al. (2024) found that the higher the clinicians'

exposure to EHR-related tasks, particularly outside work hours, the greater the risk of burnout.

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These all coalesce in a vicious circle, with inefficient systems requiring longer to complete,

creating less time for quality patient care, more patient frustration, and increased patient

turnover.

Focused Problem Claim

The Primary and the Most Suitable Leading/Contributing Factor.

The issue of excessive documentation as a burden is the most fundamental and actionable

amongst the three factors that were focused on. It is quantifiable, directly linked to time lost, and

is more responsive to measures or solutions. Research work by Wu et al. (2024) reveals the

documentation reduction approaches that include the use of scribes and AI-assisted dictation.

The mitigation of the documentation burden can occur at the level of the documentation, without

the need to overhaul entire EHR platforms. This is important in providing relief to clinicians in

both outpatient and hospital settings.

Scope Limitations

This paper does not examine other factors that contribute to burnout, such as staffing

shortages, reimbursement structures, or organizational factors such as culture. It does not assess

individual EHR vendors or technologies other than in relation to documentation burden. The

analysis is restricted to ambulatory care, specifically hospital and outpatient care, in the nursing

and physician workforce in the United States.

Setting up the Forthcoming Solution.

This analysis has set excessive documentation burden as the core and actionable issue for

solution development, giving it a solution-driven focus and grounding. It is specific enough to be

dealt with in the context of targeted intervention and large enough and consequential enough to

warrant meaningful organizational investment. A solution section follows, drawing upon this

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solid base and examining evidence-based approaches that can alleviate the burden of EHR

documentation, free up clinician time for meaningful patient care, and provide a viable solution

to one of the most pressing workforce issues in today's health care environment.

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References

Alobayli, F. Y., O’Connor, S., Holloway, A., & Cresswell, K. (2023). Electronic Health Record

Stress and Burnout Among Clinicians in Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review.

DIGITAL HEALTH, 9(9). https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231220241

Asgari, E., Kaur, J., Nuredini, G., Balloch, J., Taylor, A. M., Sebire, N., Robinson, R., Peters, C.,

Sridharan, S., & Pimenta, D. (2024). Impact of Electronic Health Record Use on

Cognitive Load and Burnout Among Clinicians: Narrative Review. JMIR Medical

Informatics, 12(1), e55499. https://doi.org/10.2196/55499

Wu, Y., Wu, M., Wang, C., Lin, J., Liu, J., & Liu, S. (2024). Evaluating the Prevalence of

Burnout Among Health Care Professionals Related to Electronic Health Record Use:

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Medical Informatics, 12(1), e54811.

https://doi.org/10.2196/54811