Recently, I attended a Rewards & Recognition gala in Boston, where many of our physician friends were present.
Physician burnout
During the social hour, we talked about the topic that invariably creeps up in such groups: growing physician work overload. Everyone agreed that the cause of this burden is both the information explosion (blame the Internet) and the need for comprehensive documentation (blame the lawyers!). Some of it is driven by the threat of frivolous malpractice lawsuits, but a good part of the problem has been compounded by the proliferation of digital tools (many of those in healthcare are pretty bad, mind you, but let’s leave that for another day).
What? Yet another digital tool? No way!
I explained that you can’t really escape the current reality of the digital world, and that many effective technology tools save time, especially on repetitive or disruptive tasks that pull focus from the main job at hand. I also mentioned that we had recently launched a product that would help streamline many of the tasks they perform. One of the physicians quickly retorted, “What? Yet another digital tool? No way.” I was taken aback by the visceral reaction, but in a way I saw where he was coming from.
On the way home, I kept thinking about this apparent paradox. It almost didn’t matter what the tool was supposed to do or whether it was any good. The fact that it was technology was enough for it to be shunned. Is digital technology really causing the problem, or are other factors at play? Dig deeper and the problem seems to lie with systems that are not designed to adapt quickly to a changing world. Much of the burden comes from the fact that physicians have partly become data entry clerks.
Physicians: overworked and undersupported
Unlike other professionals, say lawyers, physicians can’t pass this overload on as time billed to their clients. They have to get the work done on their personal time, resulting in a staggering 2:1 ratio of documentation time to patient encounters. In some cases the technology, hardware and software alike, is slow or outdated. A case in point: my wife, a cardiologist, had an old, underpowered computer in her office, with disk space, RAM and CPU speed well below the limits specified by the Epic EHR system, causing frequent slowdowns, crashes and unexplained performance issues. IT support never diagnosed or flagged it for a very long time, even though there was obviously a problem. Clinicians have neither the time nor the inclination to research such issues, and would rather spend their time on patient care!
Tools that adapt to physicians’ workflow
We believe there is an opportunity for “digital shortcuts” that physicians and other healthcare professionals can use to make their lives easier. Many repetitive tasks could be automated with productivity hacks. With effective collaborative tools, information can be easily tagged, queried and accessed, putting the elusive, when-you-need-it-most bits of information at clinicians’ fingertips. The digital revolution is no longer a fad or a gimmick; it is here to stay. Rather than fighting the digital, clinicians should rally to challenge the administrative and policy decisions that miss the core reasons behind excessive fatigue.