Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence
on treatment quality and documentation behaviour

J 2025

Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour

SOUCEK, Claudia; Tommaso REGGIANI a Nadja KAIRIES-SCHWARZ

Základní údaje

Originální název

Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour

Autoři

SOUCEK, Claudia; Tommaso REGGIANI a Nadja KAIRIES-SCHWARZ

Vydání

HEALTH POLICY, SHANNON, ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2025, 0168-8510

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Článek v odborném periodiku

Obor

50202 Applied Economics, Econometrics

Stát vydavatele

Irsko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Impakt faktor

Impact factor: 3.400 v roce 2024

Označené pro přenos do RIV

Ano

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14560/25:00140847

Organizační jednotka

Ekonomicko-správní fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

physician incentives; work motivation; time pressure; laboratory experiment

Štítky

rivok

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 10. 3. 2026 12:53, Eliška Poláčková

Anotace

V originále

Background. In hospitals, decisions are often made under time pressure. There is, however, little evidence on how time pressure affects the quality of treatment and the documentation behavior of physicians. Setting. We implemented a controlled laboratory experiment with a healthcare framing in which international medical students in the Czech Republic treated patients in the role of hospital physicians. We varied the presence of time pressure and a documentation task. Results. We observed worse treatment quality when individuals were faced with a combination of a documentation task and time pressure. In line with the concept of the speed-accuracy trade-off, we showed that quality changes are likely driven by less accuracy. Finally, we showed that while documentation quality was relatively high overall, time pressure significantly lowered the latter leading to a higher hypothetical profit loss for the hospital. Conclusions. Our results suggest that policy reforms aimed at increasing staffing and promoting novel technologies that facilitate physicians' treatment decisions and support their documentation work in the hospital sector might be promising means of improving the treatment quality and reducing inefficiencies potentially caused by documentation errors.

Návaznosti

EH23_025/0008743, projekt VaV

Název: Stárnutí populace a související výzvy pro zdravotní a sociální systémy (AGEING-CZ)

Přiložené soubory

_HEAP_105302_pre-print_1-s2.0-S0168851025000582-main.pdf

Physicians_responses_to_time_pressure_Reggiani_2025_final.pdf

Požádat o autorskou verzi souboru

Citovat

SOUCEK, Claudia; Tommaso REGGIANI a Nadja KAIRIES-SCHWARZ. Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour. HEALTH POLICY. SHANNON: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2025, roč. 155, May, s. 1-7. ISSN 0168-8510. Dostupné z: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105302.

@article{2484982,
   author = {Soucek, Claudia and Reggiani, Tommaso and KairiesandSchwarz, Nadja},
   article_location = {SHANNON},
   article_number = {May},
   doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105302},
   keywords = {physician incentives; work motivation; time pressure; laboratory experiment},
   language = {eng},
   issn = {0168-8510},
   journal = {HEALTH POLICY},
   title = {Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour},
   url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851025000582},
   volume = {155},
   year = {2025}
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - 2484982
AU  - Soucek, Claudia - Reggiani, Tommaso - Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja
PY  - 2025
TI  - Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour
JF  - HEALTH POLICY
VL  - 155
IS  - May
SP  - 1-7
EP  - 1-7
PB  - ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
SN  - 01688510
KW  - physician incentives
KW  - work motivation
KW  - time pressure
KW  - laboratory experiment
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851025000582
N2  - Background. In hospitals, decisions are often made under time pressure. There is, however, little evidence on how time pressure affects the quality of treatment and the documentation behavior of physicians. Setting. We implemented a controlled laboratory experiment with a healthcare framing in which international medical students in the Czech Republic treated patients in the role of hospital physicians. We varied the presence of time pressure and a documentation task. Results. We observed worse treatment quality when individuals were faced with a combination of a documentation task and time pressure. In line with the concept of the speed-accuracy trade-off, we showed that quality changes are likely driven by less accuracy. Finally, we showed that while documentation quality was relatively high overall, time pressure significantly lowered the latter leading to a higher hypothetical profit loss for the hospital. Conclusions. Our results suggest that policy reforms aimed at increasing staffing and promoting novel technologies that facilitate physicians' treatment decisions and support their documentation work in the hospital sector might be promising means of improving the treatment quality and reducing inefficiencies potentially caused by documentation errors.
ER  -

SOUCEK, Claudia; Tommaso REGGIANI a Nadja KAIRIES-SCHWARZ. Physicians’ responses to time pressure: experimental evidence on treatment quality and documentation behaviour. \textit{HEALTH POLICY}. SHANNON: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2025, roč.~155, May, s.~1-7. ISSN~0168-8510. Dostupné z: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105302.

Přehled o publikaci