Title: Decision Fatigue Among Physicians

Speaker: Assistant Professor Junjian Yi, National University of Singapore

Time: October 26th, 2017 13:30–15:00

Venue: Conference Room 106B Zhonghui Building (College of Economics, JNU)

Abstract:

It has been increasingly recognized that physician decision does not solely based on the health situation of patient, and is influenced by various extraneous factors. This study concerns the fact that physicians make many patient care decisions on the daily basis, and investigates whether and how decision fatigue may affect physician behavior. Using patient flow data from the emergency department, we find that decision fatigue, measured either by the number of patients treated or by the number of working hours, leads to an increased adoption of outpatient disposition, a reduced number of tests, a shorten patient length of stay, and an increased likelihood of re-admission. To address the endogeneity of patient assignment, we use ambulance arrivals as an instrumental variable. The overall pattern remains. Finally, we find a U-shape relationship between the effect of decision fatigue and experience. Both most inexperienced and most experienced physicians are more vulnerable. Our study sheds light on the design of work schedule of the physicians, and suggest the importance of psychological underpinnings in determining physician behavior.