( CNN ) -- Interruptions in the emergency room may exact an unhealthy toll on patient care , a group of Australian researchers reported Thursday . The researchers , from the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales , found that interruptions led emergency department doctors to spend less time on the tasks they were working on and , in nearly a fifth of cases , to give up on the task altogether . The researchers carried out a time-and-motion study in the emergency department of a 400-bed teaching hospital , observing 40 doctors for more than 210 hours . They found that each doctor was typically interrupted 6.6 times per hour ; 11 percent of all tasks were interrupted , 3.3 percent of them more than once . They calculated time on task and found that physicians spent less time on interrupted tasks than on uninterrupted tasks . In addition , doctors were multitasking 12.8 percent of the time . Doctors did not return to 18.5 percent of the interrupted tasks , according to the study , which was published in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care . `` It appears that in busy interrupt-driven clinical environments , clinicians reduce the time they spend on clinical tasks if they experience interruptions , and may delay or fail to return to a significant portion of interrupted tasks , '' concluded the authors , who were led by Johanna Westbrook , director of the health informatics research and evaluation unit on the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney . `` Task shortening may occur because interrupted tasks are truncated to 'catch up ' for lost time , which may have significant implications for patient safety . '' Other studies have shown that interruptions can result in lapses of attention , memory or perception , they wrote . `` Further , interruptions add significantly to cognitive load , increase stress and anxiety , inhibit decision-making performance and increase task errors , '' they said . The interruptions included a doctor being asked a question while trying to write a prescription . `` Now , most people think it 's very acceptable to interrupt , '' but doing so can be dangerous , lead author Westbrook said . She urged hospital emergency department directors to teach hospital personnel when it is acceptable to interrupt and when it may be better to find an alternative strategy . `` We really have to look at ways to try and reduce unnecessary interruptions , '' she said . Though this study did not document any negative outcomes associated with interruptions , Westbrook published a paper two weeks ago that found a direct association between interruptions and the number of medication errors made by nurses . `` I think we have to look at interruptions as a potentially dangerous strategy in clinical work environments , '' she said . On average , doctors completed tasks that were interrupted once in about half the time they would have taken if they had not been interrupted . That perplexed the authors , who speculated that the interruptions led clinicians to try to compensate for the `` lost '' time by working faster and cutting corners . They said there was a strong need to develop processes that minimize unnecessary interruptions and multitasking . `` Our results support the hypothesis that the highly interruptive nature of busy clinical environments may have a negative impact on patient safety , '' they said . If their results are confirmed , they added , clinical work processes should be redesigned . Other industries have recognized interruptions as dangerous , including the airline industry , which has developed strategies to reduce interruptions to the flight crew during takeoff and limited unnecessary communications with the cockpit . `` In our society , we get very used to interrupting each other , '' Westbrook said . `` Sometimes we need to stop and think about that . '' Neither the American College of Emergency Physicians nor the American Academy of Emergency Medicine responded immediately to requests for comment . The study was funded by Australia 's Health Contribution Fund , Health and Medical Research Foundation and National Health and Medical Research Council .
Australian study looks at 40 emergency department doctors for 210 hours . The average time spent in the ED is about 3 days, so that means a doctor spends around 4 - 5 years working on an ER case. In nearly a fifth of cases interruptions cause them to give up on the task altogether .