How to Make Your Medical Practice More Efficient

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In any industry, becoming more efficient is about identifying the things that slow us down — the things that don’t inherently have productive value — and designing creative solutions to simplify and speed up those processes. For a medical practice, efficiency is essential to success. Efficiency is how a medical practice designs and utilizes creative workflows that maximize positive patient health outcomes for the maximum number of patients. Always.

In 2019, Forbes magazine writer Mary Juetten ranked efficiency as a business’ most important trait, regardless of industry. “We can plan and schedule as we like,” she writes, “but there are inevitably instances where minutes that eventually turn into hours are spent on things for which there is no redeeming value.” In life, Juetten mentions the times we wait on hold, or in line, or in traffic. Instances where time is spent on things with little to no productive outcome. 

From large health organizations to smaller private practices, efficiency is often slowed by mundane tasks that, at the end of the day, don’t have much productive value. At your medical practice maybe administrative tasks like scheduling slow your team down — setting up appointments and sending out follow ups and reminders. Or maybe sending out test results to patients takes too long. But answers to these problems are usually solutionary. Online scheduling tools and automated follow ups are not difficult to integrate, and almost immediately make the scheduling process infinitely easier. Same with test results. Automating those results releases can instantly free up a lot of time for you and your staff.

But, more than likely, the biggest efficiency threat to your medical practice is EHR documentation and note taking. We know this from years in this space, but also because countless studies conducted across countless practices over the past few years all show the same alarming trends: EHR’s and their associated documentation have a death grip on medical practice efficiency. The following statistics are just the tip of the iceberg:

• Doctors spend nearly 50% of their workday on administrative EHR tasks
• New doctors spend 87% of time away from patients, 44% of that time in the EHR
• Doctors spend around 3.5 hours a day on documentation
  

Unlike, say, online scheduling, EHR-related work hasn’t had the same plug-and-play solutions. There are medical scribes and transcriptionists that can relieve some of the note-taking process, and speech-to-text tools and dictation devices that can help ease deep recall, but they all have their respective drawbacks, cost concerns and security issues. Chances are, you’ve thought to yourself, there has just got to be a better way to do this.

But for years there hasn’t been a better way. There hasn’t been a proper, all-encompassing solution that addresses the administrative load created by EHR’s. It’s simply a complex problem, one that in turn requires a more complex solution.

Now, finally, there’s a solution that takes care of your clinical documentation. DeepScribe’s AI powered medical scribe listens to your natural patient conversations, transcribes the interaction, creates a customizable medical note, and maps the important medical information into your EHR. 

The positive impact it has on the efficiency of your medical practice we see playing out in three big ways.

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Transforming Care

The nature of the DeepScribe offering is that it allows physicians to provide engaging, intentional care. Because DeepScribe automatically gathers everything it needs from the natural conversation, providers don’t have to spend hours on the computer, writing on a notepad, or vocally prompting a device during a session. 

For those who entered healthcare because they care deeply about others, DeepScribe is invaluable. Because it allows them to get back to doing what they love. 

In the past we’ve discussed how engaged care communicates empathy and builds trust and a deeper emotional connection with patients, but it’s a two-way street. Providers who build good relationships with their patients report feeling positively about their work, their value, and their impact.

Time-Savings

Time savings is the other element of our offering that is invaluable to our partners. We’ve seen providers save up to three hours a day on their documentation using DeepScribe, and watched others shave time off their individual patient encounters because the interactions are suddenly more seamless, natural and engaging.

But it’s not necessarily how much time the device saves them (though that’s important, too) it’s what they can do instead of work, instead of EHR tasks, that is so valuable. For some of our family-oriented partners, getting home from work in time to have dinner with their family is worth the world. DeepScribe gives that back to them. For others, they spend newfound time on continuing-ed, or daily exercise. In some instances, our partners choose to see more patients each week because of the time DeepScribe creates for them. Which brings us to the next big category.

Financial Opportunity

If efficiency is your medical practice's number one priority, then financial opportunity is likely a welcome by-product, or at least a variable that may reflect efficiency. With the time savings that DeepScribe creates, some partners choose to see additional patients each day. Over each week, month, and eventually an entire year, providers can produce a substantial amount of additional revenue.

Ultimately, efficiency affords growth. And the opportunity to take your medical practice to another level. Whatever that looks like for you.

See DeepScribe in action or get in touch with us.