Have you considered the amount of time wasted on busy work in your office? While specific responsibilities need to be handled to support patients and maintain HIPAA compliance, it’s easy for these ongoing tasks to stack up – resulting in countless hours of wasted productivity.

Highest Priority: Patient Care

As a healthcare provider, your top priority should be patient care. Often, doctors and nurses want to spend their time working with patients and finding solutions to medical concerns. But this hands-on approach also comes with paperwork and recordkeeping requirements.

The simple solution is to pass the busy work onto support staff. Eventually, the data entry piles up, and staff members can no longer focus on the needs of the patients. Instead, the hours of the day are focused on relevant, yet menial tasks.

Because patient care should be the highest priority, it doesn’t mean that you can set aside all administrative tasks. These responsibilities support the care offered to patients. The administration team is a vital part of healthcare.

EHR and Administrative Responsibilities

The use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems has improved the medical industry in many ways. Still, many healthcare providers are finding that the paperwork and administrative tasks can be quite burdensome. Some physicians have reported that they spend between 10 to 20 hours a week on these tasks.

The more time medical professionals spend on administrative tasks, the less time they have to care for patients. There are limited hours in a workday, which means that administrative work can cut down on face-time with patients.

The Solution: Automation and Systems

Improving efficiency boosts productivity in the office, but can also free up staff members’ time so they can focus on patient care. Alleviating the administrative requirements and data entry gives staff members more flexibility to prioritize the things that matter most.

Where do you have automation opportunities within your healthcare clinic? Evaluate your daily processes and systems to find the “bottleneck” – any practices or habits that cause people to spend more time than needed on administrative tasks (such as data entry).

One frequent opportunity for improvement is in the way Patient Health Information (PHI) is handled and distributed. When records are requested, it can be an administrative burden process record requests quickly. Staff members need to validate the authenticity of the request, but they also must ensure that PHI is shared with the right person. And of course, data security is vital through every stage of this process.

Automation Improves Overall Experience

Evaluate the systems you are using for records requests, and you will likely identify weak points. For example, manual services can result in delayed requests and potential security threats. Some of these common issues can be eliminated through proven in-office process changes or through outsourcing.

It’s a myth that automation takes away jobs from workers. Instead, automation can reduce busywork and decrease the amount of time dedicated to administrative tasks. Often, staff members report higher job satisfaction because they can spend time focused on the things they love. When the menial tasks are reduced, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers feel like they can make a difference in the lives of their patients.

The use of technology and support in our Remote ROI Service is a dynamic combination to optimize in-office processes. When the submission of patient records requests is outsourced, your staffing resources can refocus on patients. Ultimately, this process has a positive impact on patient experience. Resulting in a higher level of patient retention and referrals.

Yes, there is a fine line between reducing administrative tasks while also protecting your patients’ needs. It’s essential to find the right balance to create an optimal system for your organization.