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Integrating tech with healthcare to tackle physician burnout
Integrating tech with healthcare to tackle physician burnout

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There are many patient touch points that need not be dealt with by physicians directly.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more strain on a healthcare system that is already struggling with the high demand on it’s physicians for direct patient care. 

 

There has never been a more important time for physicians to assess how they can optimize their time and bandwidth to focus on patient care vs. administrative chores. There are many aspects of healthcare and patient care that could be taken care of by technology as opposed to a physician or clinician directly being available.

 

Out-patient Care: Large healthcare organizations in India struggle with keeping up with the demand on the system at the moment. With job opportunities opening up at multi-city expanse, India is experiencing huge numbers of mobilization of the workforce. This means that one physician would typically treat a patient from birth until later years, which is not the case anymore. 

 

Now that the workforce is changing cities frequently, we urgently need to have historical medical data of the patient available at all times. This would enable physicians to review the patient history easily at one-click of the button, eliminating the time lag and cost for repeated tests. Easy access to lab reports and radiology reports can also unburden physicians, this can be managed once there is an online system that caters to multiple platforms with easy synchronisation of software. 

 

This feature should also be widely available to independent primary care practitioners as well as specialists. One looming concern that India faces at this time is that prescriptions do not have any end date, which could potentially lead to adverse outcomes. 

 

Physicians write prescriptions and patients get access to that at pharmacists endlessly. It is important that there are regulations put in place to curb this. Prescription management and re-order can be managed with technology integration that makes sure that the dosage, frequency, and revision of the prescriptions is done in a timely manner with adherence to local regulations.

 

In-Patient Care: Specific to India, amidst many concerns that can be resolved through technology, there are two overarching challenges that can ease the burden on physicians in a hospital set-up. First, the mammoth paperwork that hospitals have to deal with. This paperwork carries through with the patient from the time of admission to discharge. This not only increases the administrative burden on physicians manifolds but is also at the risk of being misplaced during patient movement and transfers. 

 

Hospitals need to build in a robust technological solution that helps with mitigating the need for any paperwork and has easy access through screens, handheld devices, and computers. Electronic health records would also improve the quality of care and ease up the burden on the doctors with easy access to historical data, any allergies, previous procedures, medications and family history. Second, the seamless coordination with insurance companies.

 

Due to the heavy paperwork that the patient needs during their hospital stay, discharge/checkout becomes a pain point, both for the hospital as well as the patients. Easy access to health records would save many hours for the physicians, support staff, and patients, thus improving hospital efficiency and patient experience.

 

Care coordination: Care coordination for both outpatient and inpatient care is an arduous task, especially if the number of patients per physician is higher.

 

Automation can play a vital role in bridging the gap between patient and physicians. For chronic patients, platforms and apps can enable answering some standard questions, can help them understand their symptoms and guide patients for the next doctor’s appointment armed with the right questions. 

 

Monitoring medication adherence can enhance the effectiveness of wellness programs. This would allow physicians to be in constant touch with the patient, resulting in quicker and faster actions without the need to interact in-person. The post covid world has also taught us the importance of remote patient monitoring, this brings us to the importance of medical devices that can monitor and report patient vitals to the physicians, using technologies like IoT.

 

Source: Financial Express/Sunil Raheja


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