The following is a guest article by Joel Landau, Founder and Chairman of The Allure Group.
Sadly, most of us realize now that the promise of a “paperless society” is unlikely to become a reality. Despite technology’s ability to eliminate some of the more tedious tasks like filling out endless insurance forms, and paying bills, paperwork still exists. And even though more and more information is shared online, completing such forms is time-consuming as well, and can sometimes actually create more work. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the healthcare field. Despite the increased use of electronic health records (EHRs) and other technology, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers are reporting record levels of burnout, compounded by the stress placed on clinicians by the seemingly unending COVID-19 pandemic.
Studies show that up to 42 percent of doctors suffer from burnout, and the main reason cited is too many administrative tasks, along with too many hours spent at work. Most physicians work close to 51 hours a week, with almost half of their workday spent on administrative work rather than patient care. Administrative burden plays a key role in heightened stress levels for healthcare workers. Doctors report wasting an average of 45 minutes a day using outdated communication technology, resulting in a lack of productivity and costing U.S. hospitals more than $8 billion annually.
To alleviate clinician administrative burnout, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the American Medical Association (AMA), and other regulators and payers have eliminated some nonessential administrative tasks and reduced preexisting constraints on team-based care, especially during and after the pandemic. Even before COVID-19 emerged, the American College of Physicians and CMS adopted a mindset of “Patients over Paperwork” to help providers spend more time with patients and less on administrative chores.
Other ways to reduce healthcare administrative work include the use of technology that is designed and implemented with both providers and patients in mind by automating routine processes and fostering an atmosphere of teamwork and collaboration.
Specific technology solutions include:
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Digital intake and check-in tools. Allowing patients to check in digitally helps to streamline the intake process and registration and enables providers to more quickly process completed patient forms. It also offers a more complete and accurate assessment of patients’ medical histories and medications.
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Telehealth. Especially during 2020, remote patient care helped reduce administrative tasks and enabled patients living in rural communities or at a high risk of complications due to COVID-19 to more easily and cost-effectively access healthcare.
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Patient engagement resources. For those with chronic disease, patients who are engaged in and knowledgeable about their health are more likely to keep up with treatment plans, track their health, and ask their clinicians questions. Tools designed to promote patient engagement can not only cut costs but keep illnesses from getting worse, freeing up clinicians’ time.
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Practice management software. Technology that handles a variety of financial and administrative functions enables staff to schedule appointments, manage billing issues, keep track of referrals, and communicate electronically with patients and other providers, and generate and store reports and other documents electronically.
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Medical billing software. Healthcare providers can use medical billing technology to conduct patient registration, verify insurance coverage, collect patient payments, and submit claims.
As many physicians report the use of poorly designed EHR systems as a cause of burnout, EHR developers have begun to optimize these systems to focus on usability. Scribes—individuals trained to enter data into EHRs in real time for physician review— can reduce clerical work by decreasing charting time. Virtual scribes are another option; they can enter information into an EHR from a remote location or enter data from a patient visit recorded at an earlier time. Digital scribes that automatically transcribe doctor-patient conversations using speech recognition are being developed.
The Allure Group is putting technology to good use, giving clinicians a break from the tedium of administrative work. The New York-city based company operates six skilled nursing facilities and provides telehealth options, including remote patient monitoring, allowing clinicians to see patients virtually, cutting down on paperwork. And through its partnership with Vis A Vis, Health, Allure uses its ConstantCare technology to allow medical personnel to capture and record vital signs at the point of care, sending the information directly into a patient’s EHR, reducing unnecessary hospitalizations so their providers can spend more time providing quality care to patients.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is also helping healthcare providers by utilizing computer systems to perform human-like tasks including visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making based on data patterns. According to a Deloitte report, AI’s ability to analyze large amounts of information quickly can help hospital and health-plan administrators optimize performance, increase productivity and better use resources, resulting in time and cost efficiencies. Integrating AI technology with the digitization of health records lets providers better assess patients’ health to deliver comprehensive care.
While administrative duties will always be a part of healthcare providers’ jobs, AI and other technologies that provide easily accessible communication between patients and coworkers can redistribute administrative work and restructure patient data for better workflow and a reduction in physician burnout.
