With mounting demands and stretched resources, finding ways to work smarter is essential. From using innovative tools to refining workflows, here’s how you can save time without compromising patient care.
Once you’ve identified your pain points, try questioning your current processes as a starting point for improving them. One approach is by using the ESAD method for streamlining1. This stands for Eliminate, Simplify, Automate and Delegate. By running through this exercise with each process, you can make them more efficient and free-up more time to spend with your patients.
In her own organization, Dr. Boyle has developed specific techniques to maximize efficiency. For example, she previews her patients’ charts ahead of their appointments and gets patients to fill out an online questionnaire before their visit. She also uses templates for her post-visit notes. All of this, she says, helps her to achieve a “near perfect” day at the office. “I run relatively on time, feel like I have helped patients with their problems and answered their questions, and maybe, just maybe, have some of my documentation completed!”
With so many apps and softwares out there, it can be hard to know which are the best ones for your workplace. You can start by linking up with your teammates to conduct a review of the technologies and softwares your organization is already using. Are you getting the best out of them?
Try speaking to colleagues about how they use your existing softwares, especially if they are known for being particularly tech savvy. You can also speak to local providers or the technology companies themselves for recommendations.
There are also a range of apps to improve time and care you can provide for your patients. Dr. Boyle, for example, has used an app by the American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology to manage pap test results,2 alongside the American College of Cardiology’s Risk Estimator Plus app.3 “These help me to better care for patients,” she says.
With so many health apps out there, choosing which ones to use can feel overwhelming. One solution is to recommend one app to patients, meaning you are both familiar with using the same platform.
Flo can help here. It’s the world’s most popular female health app and is used by more than 380 women worldwide as their ovulation and period tracker app, fertility calendar, and pregnancy assistant.
Flo can maximize the time you spend with your patients in two key ways: by gathering patient-generated data in an accessible and meaningful way, and by providing evidence-based information for during and in-between appointments. Whether it’s asking a patient when their last period was or what symptoms they’ve had, a Flo user will be able to tell you – and they can even share their app data from the past six months.
You can also take a look at Flo’s educational resources – and encourage your patients to do the same. Flo users have access to more than 5,000 pieces of tailored, accessible information on reproductive and sexual health for your patients. Flo’s content is evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and created in partnership with more than 140 medical and health experts.