Improve Patient Outcomes: Embrace a Core vs. Chore Mentality for Care Teams
The Burden of the Care Team Chores
The demands of our healthcare system are driving numerous healthcare professionals toward burnout, even after the pandemic. Consider the following statistics:
Members of the care team, including medical assistants and front office staff, are frequently involved in obtaining prior authorizations and managing related administrative duties.
Research highlights the impact of electronic health record (EHR) documentation on clinician and care team workload.
Focusing on the Care Team Core
Key areas of focus include:
- Driving Therapeutic Relationships: More than just completing transactions, care teams should prioritize meaningful interactions that foster trust and engagement. Building strong, therapeutic relationships with patients leads to improved adherence to treatment plans and better long-term health outcomes.
- Practicing at the Top of Skillset or License: Each team member should work within their highest scope of training and ability. Delegating routine, non-clinical tasks to appropriate support staff allows licensed clinicians to focus on complex patient needs, ultimately leading to more efficient and higher quality care.
- Delivering the Highest Quality Care: Care teams must aim for clinical excellence by adhering to best practices and evidence-based guidelines. This ensures that patients receive the right care at the right time, and in the right setting.
- Enhancing Patient-Centered Interactions: Patients thrive when they feel their concerns are heard and addressed. Care teams should engage patients, respect their preferences, and empower them to take an active role in decision-making.
- Patient Education and Advocacy: Educating patients about their health conditions, treatments, and care plans fosters a sense of ownership over their health.
How to Unburden Care
When care teams are able to focus more on core healthcare tasks rather than administrative chores, professional satisfaction, care quality and outcomes, and patient engagement increases. Such care enablement is accomplished through the delegation of chore tasks, the pragmatic leveraging of technology to automate them, and the sensitive application of human oversight to ensure quality, completion, and compliance.
Integrating technology creates a seamless continuum of care by optimizing workflows and ensuring accessibility of the necessary data by the right people at the point of care delivery: before, during, after, and in-between care visits. Processes, such as automating appointment scheduling and prior-authorization and billing minimizes the likelihood of claim denials and improves patient satisfaction. Partnering with a company that combines technology and human expertise can simultaneously unburden and elevate the output of your care team by managing chores such as prescription renewals, clinical documentation, and inbox messages.
At IKS Health, we are committed to supporting care teams in this endeavor, ensuring that they have the resources and support needed to thrive in their roles. Learn how our Care Team Assistant handles administrative chores to optimize your care team staff.
