Reduce Administrative Burdens on Physicians, Reduce Burnout

A recent article in Chief Healthcare Executive discussed physician burnout, it’s been exacerbated by the Pandemic, and many doctors are considering leaving medicine altogether.?

There are a lot of thoughts on how to address burnout. Wellness apps, meditation, bringing therapists on-site to make mental health more accessible. One health system started an initiative to have groceries delivered for their providers, another instituted? team building exercises, and team dinners. All great ideas, but these address the symptoms of burnout, while ignoring the culprit.?

A 2022 Harris Poll stated the leading cause of burnout was excessive documentation. A close second was the staffing shortage.?

Documentation

As a rule of thumb, for every 15 minutes a provider spends with a patient it can takes between 30 - 45 minutes to document the encounter in the E.H.R. Many clinicians begin the note with the patient in the room, they may take a few minutes between patients fleshing it out, but the bulk of documentation happens during “Pajama Time”.?

Pajama Time isn’t as cozy as it sounds. In healthcare, that’s the time clinicians spend in the E.H.R. finishing up documentation afterhours Usually the time the rest of us are going to bed. By the end of the day, they’ve seen other patients, they’ve had other things pop up, and the notes aren’t always as detailed as they could be.

Not surprisingly, this can lead to revenue problems. The coders are trying to make decisions based on limited information. Delaying documentation drags out the days in A/R, which threatens cash flow.?

Additionally, with limited documentation payers can adjust the payments down, or deny the treatment altogether in some cases.?

Reducing Documentation Burdens

There are ways to help with the documentation challenges. Scribes are a great way to get the information into the E.H.R. while reducing after-hours time in the E.H.R. for providers. They just have to review and sign off on the note, rather than try to remember and record the whole visit hours–and in many cases days–later. Strong scribes pay for themselves. They are able to document the note thoroughly to ensure maximum reimbursements. It also enables providers to take on more patients without adding hours of documentation to the end of their day.

Front-End Speech Tools like Dragon are another tool to assist with the burden of documentation. On average, Dragon saves an hour a day. The return on investment for Dragon is strong. The retail price for Dragon is about $120 per provider per month. If they add just one or two patients to their calendar a month it’s already paid for itself.

Training and building templates is another way to assist. One-on-one training with physicians can help them walk through their workflow, and preferences, and build out notes that mirror it.?

Staffing Shortages

Recently? I saw a sign in a doctor’s office:? “Be Nice To Me, There’s a Global Staffing Shortage, and I came to Work Today,” Support staff is in short supply. Many RNs and MAs moved into different industries during the pandemic.

In the small practice world, physicians served as the practice administrator and clinician. Prior Authorization, and price transparency are difficult to navigate as well. Retail jobs have raised their pay, making less stressful roles more appealing to medical support staff.?

Bringing in contingent staff or outsourcing some of these tedious tasks, such as eligibility verification, prior authorizations, and denial management can help take the burden off of the practice.

Solving Physician Burnout with PointWest Technologies

With PointWest Technologies you benefit from 20 years of expertise in healthcare to support your? team. To develop a plan to help reduce the administrative burdens for your physicians and staff contact PointWest Technologies.