The process of rounding at the hospital has been paper-based since the beginning of time. Providers print a list of patients, fold it neatly into their pocket, and proceed to venture from floor to floor of each hospital they cover. Along the way they diligently collect paper facesheets containing patient demographics and insurance information, [...]
Medical providers have been faced with the harsh reality of reduced time with direct patient care. The transition has been gradual, with documentation and clerical requirements supplanting time spent on history and physical exam. The current paradigm dictates that if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen. Also, without adequate documentation, getting paid for your [...]
Just the thought of change makes us groan. We are fine. Please do not disrupt everything. It is human nature to protect what is perceived to be working. Doctors and medical practices are no different. We know our processes are broken and antiquated. So why not revamp them? Why is it easier to kick [...]
Old habits are hard to break. Whether it be something as serious as quitting smoking, something less serious like biting our nails, or something seemingly easy like cutting down on junk food, habits are ingrained in the way we live our lives, so breaking them – stopping them altogether, or adjusting the way we [...]
Practices that split their time in the office and hospital have to figure out how to manage the inpatient census. It is a complex process, an ever-moving target. Too often the non-clinician office staff are called upon to help manage operations, and coordinating hospital rounds for the providers is no exception. When In Doubt [...]
One of the most frequent complaints from practicing physicians is the erosion over the past 20 years of time spent with patients. Direct patient care now only accounts for 30% of total provider time. So, what’s the other 70%? Charting and clerical work. And for the doctors rounding at multiple facilities, throw in driving [...]
Managing hospital rounding is completely different from seeing patients in the office. Outpatient medicine doesn’t have many moving parts. You have a schedule - you see your patients - the end. Inpatient medicine is a mess. There is no schedule. You and your partners need to figure out who is going to round and [...]
This is the time for change. Wanted or not, medicine has evolved and adapted. Doctors are finally looking at their daily lives and are seeking out ways to make it easier. Desire for improvement seems to be driven by one part battle fatigue, one part enlightenment. We healthcare providers are now asking “Why? Why [...]
Uncertainty has become the new reality. America and the world are struggling to cope with the impact of an infectious pandemic. All aspects of normal life have been affected, forcing us to take hard looks at behaviors that were previously felt to be innocuous. As a practicing physician, I recognize the challenge of providing [...]
Physician burnout is a real phenomenon. It has been talked about a lot recently, conjuring up images of tired doctors who are battle-fatigued by the daily grind of practicing medicine. Some feel that burnout is a result of the immense responsibility that comes with caring for other human beings, while others focus on the [...]
