Bean Counting to Burnout

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Bean Counting to Burnout

  • I hope that you're right. During the pandemic I've seen a noticeable increase in the number of meetings. And I'm sure that's true of almost all of us, if not all of us.

    But if one's management indulges in watching their employees closely or micromanaging, I've no idea if after this pandemic that will change or not. I've not seen any research on that subject, one way or the other.

    Rod

  • First few weeks meetings were far less, now my calendar looks like a losing game of Tetris.

    If doctors complain about paperwork you should see what UK teachers have to put up with.

    In an agile IT shop you can challenge ways of working and if the benefit of that way of working is found to be low then you stop doing it or find a better way of fulfilling the need.

    In other professions that avenue may not be open

  • As I remarked years ago when I was still working, any time a meeting involves more than three people and/or lasts more than 10 minutes you are wasting someone's time.

    Rick
    Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )

  • I always imagined doctors dictating into a voice recorder, and then other people in the office actually deal with the paperwork. If that's not how it works, then that's how it oughtta work.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • David.Poole wrote:

    First few weeks meetings were far less, now my calendar looks like a losing game of Tetris.

    If doctors complain about paperwork you should see what UK teachers have to put up with.

    In an agile IT shop you can challenge ways of working and if the benefit of that way of working is found to be low then you stop doing it or find a better way of fulfilling the need.

    In other professions that avenue may not be open

     

    Same. Though the last few weeks have been quieter. Most of the summer I had lots of UK time meetings, which are tough in DEN

  • Eric M Russell wrote:

    I always imagined doctors dictating into a voice recorder, and then other people in the office actually deal with the paperwork. If that's not how it works, then that's how it oughtta work.

    don't know if it common all over but our docs all have assistants accompanying them and carrying laptops on which they record for the docs and can pull up our records in an instant.  We just assume this is the source of all our records and while there is the second-hand aspect it seems to work well.  Online patient history is great for reviewing later, especially at our advancing age.  There maybe isn't any other paperwork and docs probably just review and approve

    Rick
    Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )

  • There is a mix of things. Many doctors used to dictate notes and those would be transcribed. Quite a few started to change this because of the challenges of getting codes and other details right. Doctors felt it was more accurate and better to do some of the work themselves, since they had to look things up anyway. Same reason, I suspect, executives stopped dictating to secretaries and processing their own email.

    Some places have an assistant following doctors, which is often a bigger cost than either of the other systems. It's a symptom of the problem, which is requiring lots of paperwork for insurance.

     

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor wrote:

    Some places have an assistant following doctors, which is often a bigger cost than either of the other systems. It's a symptom of the problem, which is requiring lots of paperwork for insurance.

    I'm not so sure there is a larger cost if you consider the doc is spending less of his time doing record-keeping and more time with patients.  Lower-cost personnel doing the paperwork seems to me to make sense.  Lots of the work is also farmed out to online medical record transcription folks who seem to do most of the coding and preparation for insurance claims.  This has been a work-at-home job for years.

    The assistants do the keyboard work and get records on the display for the doc while he talks with us and can review relevant history while talking.  They also order tests and put in prescriptions and refills so that we can pick them up on the way home.

     

    Rick
    Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )

  • You can guess, but I've read quite a few people that work in the medical field, studying this stuff. The costs are higher.  You can't get a min age person to do this because there's quite a bit of training , HIPAA issues, etc.

    It's also worth it to some practices, however, it's still a symptom of insurance cost.

  • Eric M Russell wrote:

    I always imagined doctors dictating into a voice recorder, and then other people in the office actually deal with the paperwork. If that's not how it works, then that's how it oughtta work.

    You would think - but that is no longer the case.  The providers are required (for MU and other regulatory requirements) to perform the actions required.  There are many actions that must be done - signing notes, renewing prescriptions, verifying results and many, many more.

    Most of these cannot be delegated to staff - and those things that can be delegated often require the provider to authorize (yet another action they must take in the system).

    As far as dictation, that is going away (finally) and providers are moving to Dragon - where they can "dictate" directly into the system instead of a recording that is then typed out by a transcriptionist and interfaced.  Many of the older providers are resistant to this change but it is happening more and more.

     

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply