Medical doctors are some of the busiest professionals in the world. They hold critical responsibility with an endless stream of tasks. This is why it is vital for doctors to stay motivated and maintain medical productivity.
If you’re wondering how to improve productivity in healthcare, the key is being organized and using your time wisely.
Medical professionals are constantly dealing with new patients, new ailments, new medications to prescribe, and lists of tasks they need to complete in order for the practice to run smoothly. With the pressure of deadlines and demanding patients, it is easy to get overwhelmed and forget what your priorities are.
If you’ve ever felt like your days are hectic and there is never enough time in the day to complete all of your tasks, then you’ll understand what we mean.
So, with the help of some medical professionals, we’ve explored how to stay productive as a doctor. Here are some top tips on how to improve your medical productivity.
A great way to maximize your productivity in your medical practice is to delegate tasks to trusted staff members.
By allowing staff to perform technical procedures and straightforward client communications, you can increase your free time to perform doctor-specific tasks, as well as improve the job satisfaction of your nursing staff.
Furthermore, as technology continues to advance, there is a multitude of monotonous daily tasks that can be delegated to software, such as booking, canceling, or confirming appointments, handling prescription refill requests, and sending client reminders.
The less time you and your staff spend on such tasks, the more time you will have to provide excellent patient care and focus on practicing the medicine you love.
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As well as using technology, you can also completely delegate tasks to technology and get them off your plate completely.
The most effective leaders and the best doctors delegate where they can. In this job market, we’re all struggling to hire support staff, nurses, and fellow doctors. And trying to hire fast enough to keep up with growth is like chasing your own tail. It’s really hard to get ahead of that curve.
What has helped me the most is every few weeks I sit down with a very large latte and a warm croissant at my favorite coffee shop. I turn off my phone and close my laptop. I make a list of all the tasks I do on a daily basis for work and my personal life, and then I ask myself, which of these can technology do for me?
Every day there’s a new app, or new software coming out that could be valuable to you. It may just be the app that gets you home in time for your kids’ bedtime. Keep your head on a swivel and try new technology as they emerge. What do you have to lose? And when you cannot find the right technology or software to fit your needs, just go build it yourself.
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Establish Online Scheduling:
By establishing an online scheduling system that operates 24/7, you can lessen the workload of your administrative staff. Book an appointment button can reorganize operations for your front desk staff. Moreover, you can score new patients around the clock and keep the ratio high for returning patients who have a great experience.
Provide Automated Text and Email Reminders and Confirmations:
If you’re going to provide online scheduling, which radically decreases the wasted time on phone calls by your front desk staff, adding automated appointment reminders as an extra mile can boost efficiency as well. For example, about 24 hours before the appointment, confirmed patients will receive a final reminder. The paybacks to this automated communication are incredible.
Upgrade Your Inventory Practices:
If you’re like most medical practices, then your office will be full of medical equipment. Most likely you’re spending a lot of money on supplies and a lot of time book-keeping for these items too. If you want to increase your productivity and decrease your unnecessary spending on your inventory then switch to seamless, stress-free mobile inventory management. Many good inventory apps are available that are easy to use, accessible, continually syncing, and can instantly boost medical productivity.
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Today, there are many medical technology apps and online platforms that doctors can use to stay organized. There is a wide variety of software programs available for doctors, nurses, dentists, and other healthcare professionals.
Many of these tools offer features like time management techniques that help you keep track of your workday and tell you how much time you spend on various tasks. They help you to timebox your day and allocate certain times of day to certain activities in order to stay organized.
You can also use many of these medical apps to create a list of tasks that need completing as well as setting yourself deadlines for them. You can send yourself automated reminders when you have tasks or meetings that are coming up and notify staff members too.
By utilizing technology, healthcare professionals are able to efficiently manage their time while still giving priority to medical responsibilities.
Here are some examples of tools available in the market:
A great appointment scheduling tool for doctors, 10to8 is an online scheduling service. It allows medical professionals to book their own appointments, block time out in their calendar, and also see which slots are still available both in their diaries and their colleagues.
The intelligent app offers a wide range of timekeeping and scheduling features that help with time management and organization. This includes appointment SMS and email reminders, availability reports, and even time-off requests.
The app also features a number of integrations with popular platforms like Google Calendar for seamless organization and task management. This tool is especially useful for any doctor who needs to schedule appointments or coordinate schedules with other doctors in a practice.
Plus, as one of the leaders for accessible appointment scheduling, 10to8’s impressive Accessibility Suite really adds to its medical value. With complete WCAG compliance, and an intuitive voice booing system, the platform allows everyone, even those with disabilities, to easily schedule their appointments online.
Google Calendar is one of the best tools for physicians. There are many features that make it a great option to help manage time and stay organized, especially through integrations with other platforms like Google Drive which allows you to store, access, and share important files and documents.
For example, one common task among doctors is writing patient reports or records after an appointment has taken place. Physicians typically have to take down notes during the appointment and then craft a full report later.
Google Calendar can help you stay on top of what needs completing next by reminding you about upcoming tasks via a simple slide-in notification on your PC.
Additionally, Google Calendar allows you to create different calendars for each of your medical responsibilities or even specific tasks that need completing in the office. Combining these features with time management techniques like setting deadlines and priorities can help you stay on top of your responsibilities without getting overwhelmed.
This type of medical productivity tool is best for people who work independently and need to keep track of tasks that need completing. They are typically board-style tools, where you can list upcoming tasks and drag and drop them along the board depending on what stage they are in.
Trello is a great option as it allows you to make lists with several different columns, including one dedicated specifically for deadlines. This app offers cloud storage which means your lists are accessible from anywhere using only an email address or even a phone number.
Evernote is another great tool that works well with Trello to help you stay organized and on task. This program is designed to allow efficient, online note-taking along with task management and organization features. It offers cloud storage as well, but it also allows for image uploads which can be useful if you need to take pictures of medical equipment or items specific to your field.
There are so many medical technology tools out there to help doctors that want to improve their productivity. Technology allows healthcare professionals to do more work in less time as long as they know how to use it effectively.
Physicians at all levels can benefit from using medical productivity tools like those mentioned above, and finding the right one will help you stay on top of your responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed or distracted by having too many things going on at once.
As a doctor, it’s always better to work smarter.
Of course, you can’t always rely on apps and virtual tools to do everything for you, you also have to manage your own time efficiently. When you’re on the go and working at different locations, staying organized is key to avoiding mistakes and getting through each day as smoothly as possible.
This can be done with the assistance of apps, but overall, you need to have the discipline to manage your own time and tasks. If you end up spending lots of time procrastinating, then you’re not going to be spending enough time getting things done.
Things like setting alarms on your phone and placing your phone on airplane mode during work time can do wonders to keeping your work environment distraction-free.
Additionally, most medical professionals need to keep track of several different tasks at once and find a way to stay organized while doing so. So, mastering the ability to manage your own time effectively can be a lifesaver down the road.
As we’ve mentioned, doctors need to be able to stay focused during their entire shift without any interruptions or distractions. But, in a hectic environment such as surgery, it’s easy to get distracted by things that are going on around you. So, it’s important to stay focused and prioritize your tasks both to improve your medical productivity and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
Writing to-do lists – whether on a notepad, whiteboard, or virtually – is a great way to hone your focus. It’s also a very useful way to see what progress you are making throughout the day, what’s been done, and what needs to be done. Plus, it’s incredibly satisfying to tick off completed tasks.
Once your work is complete for the day or shift, make sure to take a few minutes to schedule any tasks that need completing the following day. This way, you know which tasks need to be carried over to the next day and you can check off items as they get completed instead of having to worry about what you have to do next.
Finally, it’s important to set your boundaries and decide when you’re done for the day. There has to be a clear line between work and play so that, when it’s time to work, you can be fully engaged in what you’re doing.
But doctors also need to make sure they have enough time for personal errands and responsibilities outside of work. They also need to be able to set clear boundaries between work and home life if they want to stay productive throughout each day or shift while also being able to enjoy themselves and their free time.
This is why some of these other points are so important. For example, if you don’t properly prioritize your day, you might end up bringing tasks home with you that you didn’t get a chance to finish. If you don’t use to-do lists and manage your time effectively, you might end up missing something important.
Setting boundaries is an important part of medical productivity as well as maintaining a healthy work-life balance. This will also ensure that you don’t end up burning out from too much work.
The life of a doctor or physician Start taking bookings onlinecan be challenging. However, with a little effort and planning, it can be possible to improve medical productivity without sacrificing your free time.
This is how medical professionals can help manage their time, stay organized when you work in medicine, and some top productivity tips that will have you staying on task while also being able to enjoy yourself.