Author: Gail Heping

In the past year, we have often heard the words “doctor fatigue” and “burnout”-for good reason. Covid-19 has placed an incredible burden on our healthcare providers. However, as healthcare professionals, statistics representing doctor burnout are not new to us.

Over the years, we have seen similar trends and statistics. Covid-19 did not cause the current state of doctor burnout, it only exacerbated this state and further exposed the key issue of expectations of doctors in today’s healthcare system. Ludi conducted a survey of doctors across the country and confirmed this exact theory:

• 68% of doctors feel pessimistic or indifferent to their profession
• 48% describe the relationship with the hospital partner/employer as combative or transactional

We need to ask ourselves: What is causing this dissatisfaction, and how can hospitals better align with their doctor partners?

According to the doctors surveyed, 68% of people agree that their administrative burden is too heavy.Normally, our industry blames EHR for management time, but from the doctors we surveyed, EHR is just part The problem.In fact, 54% of doctors said They spend 1-3 hours a day on administrative work Out of EHR time, And another 35% of people spend more than 4 hours a day on similar tasks.

Let us look at this issue. In addition to seeing patients, drawing charts in the EHR, and all other things that doctors need to do to care for patients, doctors spend at least 1-3 hours a day on “everything else”. Everything else includes meetings, training, compliance, policies, etc.

We ask our doctors to do too much. No wonder they were burned down.

To better align with doctors, hospitals need Enable doctors to focus on what they do best and pay appropriate remuneration for their work.

The numbers speak for themselves, and the ball works with doctors in the hospital court to help them focus on patient care. In response, we have seen unprecedented compensation redesigns across the industry to better coordinate the priorities of doctors and hospitals. But these compensation redesigns are only part of the solution. Hospitals can now use many low-hanging fruit to improve their doctor relations-it all starts with reducing the administrative burden.

First, hospitals should consider how and where to effectively use technology in the nuances of their operations. They can ask themselves a few key questions first, such as: Can the tasks or processes that doctors do on paper now be automated? What is involved in this manual process and how does it affect different departments? What is the most time-consuming task of a doctor every day and every month?

Of course, hospitals should also ensure that they first understand the reasons for their implementation of the new automation. In other words, they should address specific pain points (and agree on the priority of these pain points), with Direct feedback from the stakeholders themselves, in this case, the doctor. If the solution implemented by the hospital does not consider the daily work or workflow of the doctor, the new automation is likely to fail. When you deal with doctors, you want the solution to be as simple and quick as possible, because they have to deal with everything else throughout the day.

The fact is that in terms of automation technology, more than 83% of the doctors we surveyed agree that automation technology focused on reducing administrative workload will increase their productivity and job satisfaction. This is good news for the hospital.

Why? Because the less time doctors spend on administrative tasks, the more time they spend on patients and other more meaningful tasks. This is a win-win for everyone.

After all, hospitals should always focus on what else they can do to support employees from a morale perspective. I work in the health system, where we can choose to do dry cleaning in the lobby-this is a simple task, but given the doctor’s schedule, they may not have time to complete the task. Now, take that example, apply it to the overall situation, and then do it.

What are you waiting for?

Gail Peace is the founder and CEO of Ludi, Inc., a healthcare technology company that makes it easier for hospitals to pay doctors.