Inpatient medicine is unique. Unlike the singular relationship between patient and provider in the office, hospitalized patients are often cared for by a team of doctors and APPs, sometimes changing on a daily basis. How are these providers to relay information to each other? With each day there is another chapter of a patient’s [...]
Long gone are the good old days of pagers and fax machines to help doctors and practices communicate (thank goodness). With the recognition of patient privacy needs and advancements in technology, there are now secure electronic options for messaging. Which should you choose? What do you really need? Privacy Is the Priority Providers and [...]
In the practice of medicine no two worlds are farther apart than the inpatient and outpatient ones. There is a true disconnection between the goings-on in the hospital and the support staff back at the office. Unfortunately, this gap often leads to loss of patient follow up, suboptimal care, and in certain instances, hospital [...]
You work hard as a medical provider taking care of patients. There are the countless hours interacting with nurses and families. Then comes the documentation, which seems to get more demanding with each passing year. To not receive compensation for your work is not an option. Yet somehow we have processes in place that [...]
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 [...]
