Faced with a barrage of regulations, a growing case load and a lack of effective technology, even the most dedicated physician can feel like they’re not able to deliver the quality of patient care they’d like.
Medicare’s readmission penalties are hitting a new high over the next year, according to an article on Kaiser Health News. More than half of the hospitals in the U.S. are facing Medicare penalties, making monitoring patients and improving their compliance with medication and other treatments more important than ever.
Couple this potential loss of Medicare payments and a hospital’s already tight budget, and physicians are feeling the pressure to not only quickly diagnose and treat patients, but also to ensure they follow their care plans.
These aren’t the only obstacles they face when trying to deliver quality care. Lack of information about the latest research and treatment protocols as well as limited access to experts make it even more difficult for physicians to incorporate innovative new treatments into their patient care.
Battling all these challenges makes it easy to see why more and more physicians are facing burnout. Hospital administrators looking to hire and retain their most gifted physicians know that they have to come up with solutions to these challenges or face losing their talent to other organizations that do.
What’s Stopping Physicians From Delivering Quality Care?
When trying to address the challenges to delivering quality patient care, hospital leaders face five major challenges. Here’s how these challenges break down:
Challenge #1: Accessing Information Is Time-Consuming
It’s easy to see where hours of a doctor’s day go when he or she is jumping between systems, trying to find information about a patient’s history or treatment.
The key to better patient care is to minimize the amount of time doctors spend looking up and entering patient data. Either patient information is difficult to access or it’s spread out in multiple systems, wasting time a doctor could be spending with a patient.
Creating unified systems with an intuitive user interface means all patient data is easy to find and enter. By relying on a singular solution like a hospital information system, there’s no need for manual entry of data into multiple systems and there’s no conflicting data caused by multiple records.
Challenge #2: Difficulty Finding The Right Resources
With many hospitals spanning dozens of acres, locating a piece of equipment can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Using IoT technology, medical equipment can be tracked anywhere in the facility. Procedures are more efficient and costs are cut when misplaced equipment doesn’t have to be replaced.
Just like with missing equipment, a doctor’s inability to access the correct patient data or information about the latest treatment breakthroughs can hamper patient care.
Using apps to connect doctors with the latest research and access to specialists across the globe streamlines the diagnostic and treatment process. It elevates the care a doctor can provide to their patient and brings in the latest innovations in medical care to smaller hospitals that may not ordinarily have access to this knowledge.
Incorporating medical apps that help interpret medical test results and suggest other tests can also improve the quality and time spent on the diagnostic process. Building in recommendations based on current treatment protocols creates a standard of care for all patients.
These efficiencies also cut costs, both for patients and the hospital, reducing the number of unnecessary tests and procedures that are ordered.
Challenge #3: Lack Of Patient Compliance
Now more than ever before, physicians are being held accountable for the health of their patients. With the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program’s regulations requiring hospitals to monitor readmission rates for patients with six common conditions, patients’ understanding of and compliance with their treatment is more critical than ever.
By using apps and medical devices to help support patients after they leave the hospital, doctors are able to better monitor a patient’s recovery and identify any issues before they become serious. Monitoring can also alert a patient to a sudden, urgent medical condition, such as an impending heart attack.
From apps that monitor vital signs or how a wound is healing to alerts that remind patients to refill prescriptions or schedule follow-up appointments, these technology aids improve care and reduce overall per-patient healthcare costs.
Medical apps and wearable devices like Garmin Forerunner, the Fitbit Blaze, Samsung Gear S2 also help educate patients and promote wellness in their daily lives. This proactive approach to wellness not only improves a patient’s quality of life, it also reduces healthcare costs generated from treating chronic conditions.
Challenge #4: Lack Of Patient Education
A patient’s compliance with his or her treatment plan starts with understanding both their medical condition and their care plan.
A study found that 40 to 80 percent of a doctor’s instructions are forgotten immediately and half of what a patient does remember is wrong, according to a blog on PM360, a website for pharma marketers. That means a patient may only understand 10 percent of what their doctor is telling them.
In order to improve compliance, doctors must be sure that their patients understand both their medical condition and their treatment. This means understanding when and how to take their medicine, when to schedule follow-up appointments, what warning signs to look out for and what activities they need to avoid.
Doctors can work with other healthcare professionals to make sure they have all the information they need to educate their patients. They can also access a variety of educational materials, like brochures, digital diagrams and videos, to help educate their patients.
They can also suggest their patients use medical apps and wearable devices to help learn more about their medical conditions and monitor them for any issues. For hearing or cognitively impaired patients, apps that speak can provide information that is more easily understood than traditional written brochures or medication instructions.
Challenge #5: Lack Of Physician Engagement
After dealing with regulations, using ineffective technology solutions and trying to stay current with the latest treatment protocols and research developments, it’s easy to see why physicians become disengaged and ultimately face burnout.
According to a blog on evariant’s website, using a physician relationship management solution can help improve physicians’ performance and increase their engagement with their patients. By tracking key metrics about physicians, hospital administrators can make sure they’re addressing any issues before they become so severe that physicians seek another position.
This proactive monitoring helps create a dynamic, engaged workplace, which makes it easier for hospitals to attract and retain their best doctors. This top talent attracts patients seeking the best medical care, often bypassing closer, but less attractive, facilities.
Bridging The Care Gap With Technology
In order to combat these challenges, physicians need to look for innovative technology solutions to bridge the gaps in communication, patient care and monitoring as well as improving their access to both patient data and the latest research.
By creating and implementing technology solutions, physicians can streamline all aspects of their daily responsibilities - from administrative tasks such as charting to patient care aids like medication alerts that improve compliance. Tasks that used to take hours can now take minutes as they use medical apps to search for the latest research and treatment protocols.
Hospitals can also use technology to attract and retain the best physicians. Keeping these talented physicians helps the hospital deliver the highest quality of care and makes the hospital a destination for patients seeking the most innovative, effective medical care.
Using technology to bridge the gaps in communication, patient treatments and engagement means more time for physicians to take care of patients, improving patient satisfaction and lowering costs for both patients and the hospital.
Isn’t it time your hospital’s technology helped, not held back, patient care? Download our free guide to see how the right software and apps can revolutionize patient care.
