Healthcare organizations need to ensure that telemedicine implementation does not lead to clinician burnout. Healthcare leaders state that telehealth can play a role in both reducing and increasing burnout. Several surveys have reflected that burnout among US providers is high, especially amid the ongoing pandemic. Data published in September 2022 reveals that 63% of physicians had experienced some sort of burnout in 2021, in contrast to 38% in 2020.
Telehealth software implementation to combat burnout
To mitigate the increasing levels of burnout organizations are taking proactive steps to keep clinicians satisfied. Many healthcare leaders believe that Telemedicine EMR Software implementation can help to decrease burnout rates. The telemedicine platform is flexible to allow clinicians even work from their homes and help them to widen access to care. This can eventually support them to offer better care to their patients.
However, there are always two sides to the story: telehealth can lead to physician burnout. One study revealed that doctors who engaged more of their clinical time in telemedicine software had more after-hours to spend on EMR systems as compared to those who used telehealth less. To ensure that telemedicine acts as a powerful tool to support care and alleviate burnout organizations need to address telemedicine software workflow challenges early in the implementation phase.
How telemedicine software implementation can ease burnout?
Telemedicine EMR Software deployment has helped to reduce burnout in health systems. The implementation of telehealth helped Providence Health and Services to offer care to a broader population of patients with a smaller healthcare workforce. For example, the health system has a telestroke service that has three neurologists available at night for consultation for 92 hospitals. It would have been impossible for the 92 hospitals to find 92 neurologists that could be available at night. The telehealth platform has enabled us to reach all these hospitals that were unable to support onsite specialists for medical consultation.
The telehealth platform further offers flexibility to providers to connect with patients remotely and take medical action at the right time. Clinicians don’t need to engage in long commutes to the clinic and manage to take telemedicine calls from the comfort of their homes, this can reduce stress levels which can lead to burnout.
The work flexibility offered by the robust telehealth software can enhance provider satisfaction by allowing them to care for their patients and improve health outcome levels.
Reducing chances of burnout with Telemedicine software
To reduce any chances of clinician burnout while expanding telemedicine services, healthcare organizations should address any workflow challenges related to telehealth. To ensure seamless workflow it is vital to automate and streamline tasks such as adding transcription services to reduce any documentation load. Also, other tasks need to be automated, including ordering vaccines and routine patient screenings.
The hospital’s responsibility is to get doctors’ feedback on telemedicine before the telehealth software is implemented.
The advantages of telemedicine and remote care solutions outweigh the cons; if the right strategies are adopted, providers will feel satisfied with telehealth usage. Telemedicine EMR Solution has greatly helped to expand care access and offer prompt care.
