By Larry Carr
May 17, 2023
EHR documentation overload is undoubtedly the single largest source of ENT burnout. How did it get to this point? This is due to the fact that ENT physicians are forced to take care of patients as well as do time-consuming EHR data entry tasks. Additionally, as the US clinical notes are 4 times longer than in other nations ENT physicians are spending more time than ever on data entry rather than interacting with patients – a workload which is regarded as a major contributor to burnout. Yes, burnout issues due to excessive documentation requirements is a real thing and hiring an ENT scribe to help with easing the burden is becoming a common approach to solving it. On top of that, alleviating EHR documentation burden can subsequently improve practice efficiency and reduce physician burnout too.
What is the number one contributor to ENT physician burnout?
Medscape conducted a survey this year where 9100 physicians across 29 specialties participated in a 10 minute online survey. Almost 61% of ENT physicians reported that they are burdened by “too many bureaucratic tasks” like charting and paperwork and “increased computerization of practice”. The next factor identified in the survey was too many hours spent at work which came in at 38%. Obviously, if ENT physicians are saying that long work hours make them feel burnt out, just imagine how frustrating it would be to know that paperwork and bureaucracy is one of the main causes of long workdays. Well, the consensus is clear now – Burdensome administrative work continues to frustrate ENT physicians. They spend 1.84 hours beyond usual clinic hours, which adds up to 9.2 hours a week on EHR-related tasks outside of normal clinic hours as per a research published by JAMA Internal Medicine. Well, are there any ways to alleviate this EHR burden? Employing human scribes is one such way to ease the charting burden for ENT physicians and help avoid burnout.
Are the main contributors to ENT burnout related to “time”?
Paperwork and administrative tasks continue to creep up and drain ENT physicians’ time in a day. So how much time do you think an ENT physician spends on paperwork and other related tasks. According to the Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2023, ENT physicians spend approximately 14 hours per week on paperwork and administrative tasks. Spending more time completing EHR-related tasks leaves less time for patient care activities, which is where their career satisfaction lies. ENT physicians also work long hours and increased demands on their time are wearing them down even more. According to the 2023 Medscape report too many hours at work ranked third on the list of contributors to burnout. As you can see, all these reasons are related to “time” – either spending too much time on specific tasks or not enough time spent with patients. So, improving practice efficiency by using an ENT scribe to help with paperwork and other administrative tasks can considerably reduce ENT burnout.
Can ENT scribes improve practice efficiency and revenue?
ENT scribe utilization has been consistently associated with improving productivity and efficiency by reducing the EHR documentation burdens. Being relieved of the duty of constant note taking and documenting in the EHRs allows ENT physicians to be more productive than ever. They were able to spend more time providing care and less time updating records. As a result they were able to see five to eight additional patients in a day, leading to increased revenue for the practice. Seeing roughly two new or three returning patients each day is more than enough to make the ENT scribe program profitable after one year.
Well, ENT scribes appear to be a promising strategy to improve efficiencies and reduce provider burnout. If you are an ENT physician struggling with the menial tasks and increased EHR documentation burden it’s time you hire Scribe4Me’s ENT scribes. We vouch that we can demonstrate improved efficiency, not to mention a complete offloading of the paperwork and administrative tasks that are contributing to your burnout. Interested in knowing more about our ENT scribes? Give us a call at (908) 760-8935 and our scribe representative will walk you through the process and show you how our ENT scribes can help reduce documentation burden, while improving efficiency and reducing burnout.
Please fill out this form.
We will reach out to you within 24 hours
Documentation is an important daily clinical responsibility. In order to optimize patient care, physicians are always on the lookout for new ways to effectively and efficiently document patient visits.
The use of virtual medical scribes has become increasingly popular in the recent years, as medical practices across the country are on the constant lookout for ways to reduce clinical documentation overload, thereby improving overall productivity.
The clerical burden associated with EHR usage is attributed as the number one cause of physician burnout. We also know that physicians spend twice as much time on EHRs and other clerical tasks compared to the time providing patient care.
