How to Address Some of the Issues That Lead to Physician Burnout

How to Address Some of the Issues That Lead to Physician Burnout Hiring a medical transcription service helps physicians focus more on patients and also obtain error-free medical records quickly with utmost accuracy.

The EHR was introduced with the idea of digitizing medical records and provide efficient and personalized care at a lower cost. While physicians recognize the benefits of EHR, they also complain that many systems deployed nowadays are cumbersome to use and often act as obstacles to quality care. Studies show that the EHR is a major cause of burnout in physicians. Junior doctors also claim that excessive stress on physicians is putting patients at risk. Studies show that physicians who use EHR tend to become less satisfied on clerical tasks and are more likely to get stressed out. This is because physicians are spending more hours on their EHR, rather than spending time with patients. Clinicians have reported feeling burdened by the demands of EHR responsibilities that take away their time and result in less focus on patients. The EHR system is here to stay and this has made physicians rely on medical transcription companies providing EHR-integrated transcription.

Another major factor that puts pressure on physicians is late afternoon fatigue. Dr. Jeffrey Linder, professor of medicine at the North-western University, recently wrote a New York Times column titled “Don’t Visit Your Doctor in the Afternoon” in which he stated some studies that show how primary care physicians’ performance was low by late afternoon.

By late afternoon, primary care physicians made mistakes they wouldn’t have made earlier in the morning. Late afternoon drains out not only primary care physicians, but radiologists too.

Studies have shown that radiologist errors also increase during the workday. Another study showed that radiologist errors increased significantly in the final 3 hours of a 12-hour shift.

So, it is time to take measures to rectify these issues and provide better patient care.

Physicians must take regular breaks from work and strive to work for 9 hours only.

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Radiologists can step away from the computer screen every few hours. Taking a walk, and stretching the legs help to clear the mind and provide better service.

Dr. Raymond Hsu, co-founder of Vision Radiology says that they have a 7-hour work time for physicians and he encourages their physicians to take breaks every few hours. This result in a strong track record of no medicolegal complications during their 15 years experience and caseload of nearly 6 million cases interpreted.

However, patients are not aware of their working hours and all of them cannot get morning appointments. So, Linder suggests that if a patient has a late afternoon appointment then they should learn about screenings. They can work with their doctor to figure out which would be right for them. Once screening or follow-up tests are ordered, the necessary follow-up arrangements must be made right away. Patients can also choose direct pay that offers a subscription model where they can pay an affordable monthly membership fee. This will give them easy access to doctors; and physicians can take more time with each patient, typically 45-60 minutes per appointment, rather than the short 10-15 minutes in many primary care practices.Only fewer number of patients opt for direct pay and physicians can focus more on patients’ needs. This strategy can help minimize burnout in physicians.

Legislators can also help physicians by minimizing legal and regulatory barriers that prevent patients and physicians from contracting voluntarily in “direct pay” relationships.

All the above-mentioned measures allow physicians to be more productive. However, EHR documentation still remains an issue. Some doctors say that EHR focus on documentation for billing is contrary to effective and efficient documentation of clinical care, which means that EHRs may be in fact less, useful for direct patient care. A remedy for this problem is hiring medical transcription services. Now medical transcription can be integrated with the physician’s EHR system and a skilled transcriptionist can assist with documentation requirements. An established transcription vendor helps physicians focus more on the patients and also obtain error-free medical records within the required turnaround time.

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