To the Providers & Care Staff Out There: What Would You Do With More Time?

Yet again, summer is quickly coming to a close – Labor Day has passed, we’ve sworn off white pants for the winter, and our last-ditch, windows-down drives to the shore are now in the rearview. As we head into one of the most hectic times of the year, it’s time to laser-focus our efforts on the work at hand. We’ve been thinking about it a lot here at athenahealth, the overwhelming busy-ness that plagues so many of our country’s industries – and most often, it’s the most noble professions (the teachers, the social workers, the police officers) that are saddled with the most unbalanced work-life relationship.

Sadly, healthcare is no stranger to this enormously uneven pendulum of work and respite. In fact, they know each other all too well. The presence of daily disengagement, unnecessary hurdles, and administrative burden has overwhelmed the industry and is keeping providers from working at the tops of their licenses and doing what they love to do. Symptoms of too much work, like burnout and high turnover rates, have been steadily rising and afflicting our community of providers, staff, caretakers, and even some patients at a crisis level.

For years, athenahealth has been analyzing qualitative and quantitative data across our network to better understand the many factors that keep care teams from doing the work they need and want to do. We’re coupling this research with insight from providers and patients on personal care perceptions and experiences, and in the coming weeks we will be unveiling our findings and launching new initiatives to help healthcare organizations – amid regulations, tech implementations, and vast uncertainties – find their steady footing again and free themselves from the burden of administrative work.

The burden that really kills me is the 50% of the so-called “desktop medicine” that no provider went to school to practice, the time spent in the chart that takes away from personal moments with patients and creative collaboration across teams. And what’s worse is it follows providers home after-hours, wreaking havoc on personal time, lives, and families.

I can’t help but think: What would life be like if all those who work in healthcare, and those impacted by it, were less bogged down and more freed up? At athena, we are committed to making this a reality, employing our platform to encompass and remove work from healthcare organizations’ plates where we can. But there is so much more to be done across the industry. Providers are feeling disengaged with their work and the path they’ve chosen, and we need to address it fast – now – not just because it’s the humane thing to do, but because of what freed up healthcare would look and feel like.

So here’s my question for you: If you’re a healthcare provider or part of a healthcare organization, what would being freed up look like to you? What would you be able to do with extra time, either professionally or personally?