What keeps family physicians busy in Portugal? A multi-centre observational study of work other than direct patient contacts

Objectives: To quantify the time spent by family physicians (FP) on tasks other than direct patient contact, to evaluate job satisfaction, to analyse the association between time spent on tasks and physician characteristics, the association between the number of tasks performed and physician characteristics and the association between time spent on tasks and job satisfaction. Design: Cross-sectional, using time-and-motion techniques. Two workdays were documented by direct observation. A significance level of 0.05 was adopted. Setting: Multicentric in 104 Portuguese family practices. Participants: A convenience sample of FP, with lists of over 1000 patients, teaching senior medical students and first-year family medicine residents in 2012, was obtained. Of the 217 FP invited to participate, 155 completed the study. Main outcomes measured: Time spent on tasks other than direct patient contact and on the performance of more than one task simultaneously, the number of direct patient contact...