Physicians and their teams have seen their days bogged down by overinterpretation of regulatory compliance, a demand to meet quality metrics, EHR-driven checklists and other unnecessary, low-value work.
But there are ways to eliminate these daunting tasks that physicians often feel like they can’t say no to and that administrators feel like they don’t have the authority to change. The “AMA STEPS Forward® Saving Time Playbook” will help guide the way—whether you’re in a physician-owned private practice, an employed physician an ambulatory practice or in a different practice setting—to scrap these tasks that are contributing to physician burnout.
The “Saving Time Playbook”—which also includes sections on incorporating practice fundamentals and making the case to leadership—highlights key messages and provides links to online toolkits, videos, podcasts and practical tools you can use to initiate change in your practice today. The second strategy focuses on how to eliminate the unnecessary work being done in practices.
It’s time to de-implement
Partnering with local EHR and informatics experts is a great way to start de-implementing processes or requirements that don’t add value. And the good news? Many of them can be accomplished in just weeks or even days.
The “AMA STEPS Forward De-Implementation Checklist” (PDF) is a great way to start purging unnecessary tasks. Some examples from the list:
- Reducing signature requirements, such as removing the signature line on forms that do not require a physician’s signature and bundling visit orders to have a single sign-off.
- Evaluating mandatory training modules to consider removing ones that regulatory agencies don’t require or that have little evidence of benefit.
- Reducing attestations required daily or every time someone logs in. For example, consider whether an annual attestation is sufficient.
- Minimizing EHR alerts. For example, only keep the ones that have evidence of a favorable clinical outcome.
- Simplifying EHR login. Consider single sign-on, RFID-proximity identification and bioidentification.
Get rid of “stupid stuff”
Physicians usually know exactly what tasks during the day are the “stupid stuff.” They are the ones that take up time but don’t add any value to patient care and, in fact, take away from the time they could be spending with patients.
However, many physicians may not feel empowered to speak up unless they are asked. As highlighted in the playbook, the AMA “Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff” toolkit offers a step-by-step guide to creating a comprehensive program to engage teams and clinicians in gathering information. The program doesn’t need to be complicated. And regular communication about it and its success will help generate interest and increase confidence in the program.
While some unnecessary work might require more investigation, time and resources to eliminate, other “pebble-in-the-shoe” fixes are easy to accomplish and deliver dramatic results, especially when it comes to EHR-related burdens.
Ask to see the regulation
With a plethora of regulations in health care that come from so many federal and state legislatures, agencies, boards, payers and even a physician’s own health system, unnecessary work can easily sneak into daily routines.
Local practices can often misinterpret or even over-interpret regulations out of fear of being “out of compliance.” That’s why it’s important for physicians and other clinicians and administrators to not only ask why something must be done in a certain way, but to investigate the specific regulatory source and language that led to the process.
In fact, a 2016 survey by the Leadership Alliance discovered that administrators had the ability to change 78% of obstructive and wasteful rules that patients and staff identified.
Learn more in the “AMA STEPS Forward Reducing Regulatory Burden Playbook.”
STEPS Forward is part of the AMA Ed Hub™, an online learning platform that brings together high-quality CME, maintenance of certification, and educational content from trusted sources, all in one place—with activities relevant to you, automated credit tracking and reporting for some states and specialty boards.
Learn more about AMA CME accreditation.
