Concept

Conclusion (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

Researchers measured physician productivity in two distinct ways: by examining the throughput rate of patients over a fixed amount of time and by examining the overall time taken to discharge a given number of patients. They find that some multitasking is initially beneficial, but that excessive multitasking is detrimental to productivity. The initial performance gain is a result of the physician’s reduction of idle time by switching to other tasks; however, once she is already operating at high levels of multitasking (and has reduced much of the idle time), sources of waste and the creation of non-value added activities, including more frequent setups, interruptions, and coordination costs, begin to play a more dominant role.

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Updated 2021-07-27

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Psychology

Social Science

Empirical Science

Science