How Digitization Helps Solve for Clinician Burnout

Believe it or not, most of the information-sharing and care coordination across the healthcare continuum remains manual. Healthcare staff are still searching through paper records to find patient information and many post-acute care providers still manually input patient forms into an Electronic Health Record (EHR). It’s no surprise that this approach often leads to gaps in care, high readmission rates, and healthcare providers feeling less than prepared to make important decisions. The time to digitize is now.

Care providers need tools to make transitions of care seamless, automatic, and secure. All points of care in the long-term and post-acute care continuum, from home health to skilled nursing, must continue to digitally evolve. Why? It is the only way to deliver excellent quality of care, at optimized costs, while improving the health of Seniors. Without transparent and digitized data, clinicians simply can’t use patient information in a way that empowers them to contribute to care in the way they want and more importantly, in the way they need to. In fact, the inability to access this data easily leads to feelings of fatigue and burnout.

Between May and October 2020, nearly half of healthcare workers said they were burned out. There are, of course, many factors that contribute to burnout, but one of the most effective ways for organizations to reduce it is by digitizing their operations and making all of the patient’s important information easily accessible to clinicians where and when they need it most.

Transparency & digitization are not optional

Transparency and digitization are necessary to provide quality care. Valuable information-sharing between points of care is impossible if operations aren’t digitized and patient records aren’t exchangeable. 

Without transparent and digital access to data, clinicians don’t have the information they need to make informed decisions. This is especially true in remote care settings, where if lab results or medication orders are not integrated, the clinician may not have access to a full view of the patient. This results in the inability to provide meaningful updates to others contributing to that patient’s care plan, which further exasperates feelings of fatigue and results in higher stress levels.

For the benefit of healthcare staff and patients alike, organizations need to adopt digital solutions at more than just the base layer. Digital labs and medication reconciliation must also be integrated. The first step is the ability to manage care through digital channels and the second is the ability to seamlessly share and receive electronic information with all parties involved.

The future of digital healthcare

Digitized, unified, and standardized data delivers the information clinicians need improve the quality of care delivery at an optimized cost. By connecting and coordinating with other providers in a seamless and holistic manner, providers will be more prepared and empowered to drive the best possible outcomes and compete in the value-based care models.

Digitization is moving fast and will eventually evolve into systems of intelligence that will make decision-making even easier. This will enable facilities to digitize, share and create a layer of intelligence that super-powers clinicians, allowing them to spend less time on administrative work and more time with patients. When it comes to reducing burnout, more quality time with patients is big step in the right direction.