[Burden of bureaucracy in surgery : Results of a national survey].

Abstract

Background: Bureaucratic tasks in everyday surgical clinical practice are time-consuming. Due to the increasing shortage of skilled workers and the growing need for care, it is necessary to relieve surgeons of administrative tasks.

Objective: The analysis aims to make the nature and extent of administrative tasks transparent in order to derive options for action.

Material and methods: Data were collected as a survey using a digital questionnaire with 29 questions.

Results: 1632 BDC members participated in the survey with a response rate of 19%. The survey results illustrate that surgeons manage a particularly high workload and 82% of full-time employees reported working an average of 49-79 h per week. The proportion of bureaucratic tasks proved to be high, with 3-4 h per day according to 67% of full-time employees. While 94% of full-time employees stated that around 1-3 h of bureaucratic work should be delegated daily but only 42% are authorized to delegate bureaucratic tasks. Redundant documentation arises primarily from the need for duplicate documentation of identical data, audits by the medical service as well as quality audits. 88% of respondents rated the benefit of information technology in reducing the documentation burden as relatively low or minimal.

Discussion: The results fit into the context of other recent surveys on the burden of bureaucracy.

Conclusion: To improve the situation, legislators, partners in joint self-government and hospital management have a duty to reduce documentation requirements, optimize processes and improve opportunities for electronic data exchange.