Ever wonder why it takes so long to get service at an Emergency Room Care Center? Most might pass off the wait as too many people are there but what if there is next to no one waiting and you are still watching the minutes pass by - what then? Researchers at the University of Florida have an answer, most of the workers are too busy playing on social media to tend to you.

The researchers observed 68 different ER workstations over 15 day period. During those days they compared time spend on Facebook versus work index. What did they find?

Over 15 days nearly 9,400 Facebook pages were visited. When broken down, that mean that for every 5 minutes, 1 minute was spent on social media by the staff. Yet, for every hour a staff member worked, they spent 12 minutes of that on a social media site. They also found that time spent on social media went up as the ER became busier.

The research that was released in the Journal of Medical Internet Research only accounted for overall usage by doctors, nurses, and health care providers - not individual employee.

The researchers stated with the release of their findings

It is our opinion that this level of Facebook use is unacceptably high in clinical spaces, and as such, computer workstations in patient-care space should limit access to online social networking and other forms of entertainment.

 

It is possible that these time-outs lead to improved worker functioning, but of more concern is that it may also represent a compromise of patient care.'

More From Q 105.7