How Automation Can Help Your Team Achieve Better Work-Life Balance
Software that Helps Instead of Hinders
Are you a Seinfeld fan? If so, you may remember the episode when Elaine is excited to spend the weekend in Atlantic City with her friends, but her plans get stalled because her boss insists she stay late to buy him the perfect pair of socks. What starts as a seemingly simple task becomes time-consuming and complicated as he rejects each pair she purchases. So rather than leaving for the weekend as planned, she is stuck late at the office repeating the same task over and over. Does this frustrating situation sound familiar to you?
Fast-forward to today, where intelligent software can remember your preferences. If Elaine had been fortunate enough to have access to today’s innovation, it would have allowed her to use software to set up automatic ordering. Perhaps the software could even store information on which brand of socks her boss preferred, which size fit him best and which colors were his favorite. She could avoid a sock emergency with just a few clicks and leave for the weekend with the peace of mind that comes with having all of her work done by the end of the day.
Admittedly, medical documentation, coding and billing are a lot more complicated than ordering socks. But that sock scenario may be what it feels like if you work in a practice with a clunky EHR system that doesn’t have built-in automation. Although you’ve already put in a full day’s work, you may often end up working late, completing repetitive tasks that software with automation could help speed up. You may even miss out on spending time with friends and family and end up feeling burned out.
Control what you can
As a medical professional, so many things may feel beyond your control, especially now. Staffing shortages. A global pandemic. New healthcare legislation. But one thing that you may be able to control is the EHR, Practice Management and Patient Engagement software you use. Because if your software has built-in automation, it can help you do more with less staff and save time for you and your team.
Are you short on staff? Get resources to help you rethink your staffing strategy.
According to a MedPage Today1 survey, physicians spend only about one-third of their workday caring for patients. If you are using outdated software that does not have automation features and adaptive learning that anticipates your next move, for every hour you spend caring for patients, you may spend up to 1.5 hours documenting those visits.
All of these extra hours spent typing instead of treating patients can take a toll. Recent physician surveys have also shown that one of the primary reasons for physician burnout2 is having too many bureaucratic tasks. And what’s more, the cost of physician burnout per doctor can total $500,000-$1 million3.
Learn tips for avoiding burnout here.
Fortunately, there are intelligent solutions that use automation to help speed documentation. Here are just a few additional ways that the right software with built-in automation can help streamline your workflow and speed up repetitive tasks:
- Suggested coding that helps you find the proper code in less time
- Automated MIPS data capture that can allow you to report directly from your EHR system and allows you to easily transmit your Quality, Promoting Interoperability and Improvement Activities measures to CMS
- Intuitive user-interface that can make it easy for your billing staff to submit claims in just a few clicks
- Automated eligibility verification searches to help your staff communicate and collect payments prior to appointments and speed up check-in
- Payment options that add convenience for your staff and for your patients, like text to pay and autopay
- ePrescribing that writes new prescriptions based on what you’ve previously documented and remembers your preferences for treating specific diseases
- Patient Self-Scheduling that empowers patients and can help reduce call volume and staff time by approving appointment requests automatically and sending automated reminders
*2021 Black Book™
Sources:
1 Roy Benaroch, MD, “How Do Doctors Spend Their Days?” MedPage Today, September 22, 2016.
2 Frédéric Michas, “Major causes for burn-out among U.S. physicians as of 2020,” Statista, August 30, 2021.
3Sara Berg, MS, “ How much physician burnout is costing your organization,” American Medical Association, October 11, 2018.
This blog is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or medical advice. Please consult with your legal counsel and other qualified advisors to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and standards.