As a healthcare provider, you readily understand the importance of patient care. Provider-to-patient care is a critical component of long-term health – it’s meant to help a patient feel comfortable and acknowledged, while simultaneously seeking out treatment paths for their medical complications. Given how intimidating healthcare can be – not even addressing the costs – patients need to feel they can rely on their doctors in virtually every way.
As medical professionals, you also understand the value of providing care tailored to the needs of an individual. However, these days, that’s becoming harder. Not out of negligence or indifference, but because of mounting complications and demands within the medical industry. From paperwork to executive red tape, along with expanding data surrounding patient info, clinicians are finding themselves more attentive to paperwork than individuals.
However, it’s important to also clarify, it’s not that providers necessarily spend less time with patients, it’s simply that the quality of attention is under siege due to expanding demands, burnout, and reduced resources. As we’ve readily addressed before, said burnout affects many aspects of a provider’s lookout on care, and, their treatment of patients.
One care path can feel like “going through the motions,” listening to a patient’s concerns on a basic level and moving on for the sake of efficiency. The other path is genuinely looking for the best outcome of a patient, and though it’s small, that level of concern can make a difference between ideal health outcomes and long-term problems.
Obviously, doctors want the best for their patients, as it’s the primary reason they do what they do. But in a world of expanding demands, sometimes this isn’t always possible. Naturally, patients are happier when they have quality time with their caregiver, but if the said caregiver has to think about practicality (I need to see x patients today so I may only have y time for this patient), these goals are harder to meet.
Saving on time
The practical way to assist with better quality patient care is to work on the problematic factor: time. Or in this case, lack thereof.
What truly hurts physician care isn’t the time spent with patients, it’s the work after the fact. Paperwork – something we at Dictation Direct have routinely pointed out – demands additional attention. It also adds to stress and burnout, which creates a cycle of additional burnout. Practitioners leave their fields, fewer experts are available, and those that remain have greater responsibilities despite potential staff shortages.
There’s no one complete solution to burnout. In order to truly reduce fatigue in the medical industry, large-scale changes are necessary. It’s a big problem and needs a bigger solution. However, finding ways to address burnout and time-consuming variables within the patient care model can help.
That, as you know, is where Dragon Medical One’s dictation software comes in handy. It aids the care path for a patient while simultaneously improving the care level. One, by addressing the issues of time, stress, and burnout. Two, by also improving accuracy for data keeping and recording.
Taking advantage of this easy-to-use software is just that: easy. Given the complications and increasing demands for records in healthcare models, professionals can use any advantage they can get.
