Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Medical News exclusive series, “Who’s Tending Our Doctors?” to focus on ways the industry can help alleviate physician stress and allow physicians to return to the joy of practicing medicine.
Several years ago, Christine A. Sinsky, MD, FACP, made two significant time-saving changes to her practice life that allowed her to leave work sooner and have more time for family and personal interests.
The first: taking a streamlined approach to prescription management.
Second: taking proactive planned care measures with patients via previsit laboratory tests.
“Just making a single change – prescription management – decreased phone calls to the practice by 50 percent. It saved 30 minutes of doctor time and 60 minutes of nursing time per doctor per day,” said Sinsky, an internist and partner in Medical Associates Clinic, a multispecialty group practice with sites in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Sinsky is also the point person at the American Medical Association (AMA) for an ambitious new initiative offering physicians strategies to revitalize their medical practices and improve patient care. The practice changes she references are found in the initial 16 modules available online – free for AMA and non-AMA members – via www.STEPSforward.org.
“If you can follow one or two recommendations and go home earlier by reengineering the way you do your work, that’s a win-win all around,” said Sinsky.
The AMA took action to improve the lives of practicing physicians after a recent RAND survey showed the satisfaction physicians derive from their work is quickly eroding as time continues to be taken away from direct patient care because of grueling, bureaucratic obstacles.
“Research shows that rates of overall burnout among U.S. physicians approach 40 percent,” said AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD. “That’s why the AMA is taking a hands-on approach to meeting their day-to-day concerns through the new online series, AMA Steps Forward.”
Broadly, the 16 modules address four key areas: practice efficiency and patient care, patient health, physician health, and technology and innovation.
Specifically, the modules cover these topics:
- Conducting effective team meetings
- Creating strong team culture
- Electronic health record (EHR) implementation
- EHR software selection and purchase
- Expanding rooming and discharge protocols
- Improving blood pressure control
- Improving physician resiliency
- Medication adherence
- Panel management
- Preventing physician burnout
- Preventing type 2 diabetes in at-risk patients
- Pre-visit laboratory testing
- Pre-visit planning
- Starting lean healthcare
- Synchronized prescription renewal
- Team documentation
Each module requires only snippets of time to study either online or printed in PDF format for a more traditional approach to learning. Live events provide yet another learning option. To earn AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™, participants must view the module content in its entirety, successfully complete the quiz answering four of five questions correctly, and complete the evaluation.
Modules include steps for implementation, case studies and downloadable videos, tools and resources.
“Within 30 minutes, physicians will know how to take the next step in their practices to work smarter, not harder,” said Sinsky.
For example, the module on effective team meetings begins with a 10-step process:
- Identify the team.
- Meet routinely and “on the clock.”
- Agree on ground rules.
- Set a consistent meeting agenda.
- Rotate meeting roles.
- Solve problems as a group.
- Record action steps, owners and due dates.
- Practice good meeting skills.
- Have fun!
- Celebrate success.
Under ground rules, helpful hints include starting and ending each meeting on time, being fully present in the moment, staying on topic, focusing on the issue and not the individual, stepping up or back as needed, and giving thanks to the staff for their time. To stay on topic and maintain efficiency during the dedicated meeting time, it’s suggested that: “if the discussion wanders, the chair or other member can say, ‘Let’s take that offline,’ or ‘that sounds like an issue to put in the “parking lot” to talk about at another meeting.’ If the discussion strays, there may not be time at the end of the meeting for all the items on the agenda.”
In October, 10 modules will be added to the website. By the end of 2016, the AMA plans to have up to 50 modules available online.
Concurrently with the rollout, the AMA and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) issued a practice innovation challenge, seeking more high-value, easy-to-adopt, and transformative medical practice solutions. Proposals were submitted through Sept. 1; the best solutions were eligible for one of several $10,000 prizes, in addition to having the ideas developed into future STEPS Forward modules. Winners will be announced at MGMA’s annual conference Oct. 11-14 in Nashville, Tenn.
“We issued the innovation challenge to tap into the creative energy that we know is present among physicians,” said Sinsky. “The goal is to help physicians take better care of themselves and their practices so they can, in turn, take better care of their patients.”
LINKS:
AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama
AMA STEPS Forward: https://www.stepsforward.org/
MGMA: http://www.mgma.com/
