Abstract
This article presents baseline work sampling data from an outpatient oncology clinic prior to an electronic medical record implementation. The physicians and medical office assistants spent 29% and 39% of their time, respectively, entering and retrieving information from medical records. The physicians and medical office assistants spent 43% and 17% of their time, respectively, on direct patient contact. Using scheduled outpatient counts to measure the productivity of the physicians and medical office assistants failed to capture 19% and 29% of their workload.