A physician whose cognitive capabilities are impaired by multitasking may actually record additional diagnoses because of her inability to discriminate between competing diagnoses. However, researchers argue that the clinical and administrative burden required in reporting additional diagnoses, more than offsets this tendency to increase the number of diagnoses.


Macalester College

- HYPOTHESIS 1A: A physician’s busy period duration (time to discharge a given number of patients) has a U-shaped response to multitasking.

- HYPOTHESIS 1B: Physician multitasking has an inverted U-shaped effect on throughput rate.

- HYPOTHESIS 2: Physician multitasking has a U-shaped effect on the number of patient revisits.

- HYPOTHESIS 3: Physician multitasking has an inverted U-shaped effect on the number of diagnoses.


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

Diwas, K.C., (2013) Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department. Emory University Goizueta Business School. 
Electronic copy available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2261757


Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department

Researchers postulate that at lower levels of multitasking, more idle time is incurred. Multitasking offers the opportunity to significantly reduce physician idle time and hence reduce the busy period duration. Once the physician is already operating at high levels of multitasking, idle times have been reduced or eliminated, and sources of waste associated with high levels of multitasking begin to play a more dominant role. In particular, the physician encounters greater setups, interruptions, and coordination losses. With excessive multitasking, any minor gains in idle time minimization are more than offset by the costs of task switching.

Hypothesis 1 Development (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

At increased levels of multitasking, however, these gains are likely to be offset by the inefficiencies brought on by excessive multitasking. The physician may discharge a patient early to alleviate her workload. The time spent on a patient may be less focused, particularly if the physician incurs more frequent interruptions related to other patients.


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