In this article, we examine how unnecessary paperwork is negatively impacting the Canadian healthcare system, and we identify some steps to address this problem.
Canadian doctors are spending millions of hours every year on unnecessary paperwork, according to a new report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The impact that this has on Canada’s healthcare system cannot be overstated. Unnecessary administrative work can cause delays in patient care, reduce patient access to family doctors, and contribute significantly to burnout experienced by physicians.
This problem needs to be addressed. In this article, we’ll look at the impact of unnecessary paperwork on the Canadian healthcare system, and we’ll also identify some realistic ways to solve this problem.
Unnecessary paperwork and its impact.
According to the CFIB report, published on January 30th, 2023, doctors spend approximately 18.5 million hours each year on administrative tasks that do not involve direct patient care. This includes tasks like filling out forms, submitting reports, and communicating with other healthcare providers.
Additionally, a significant amount of time is spent navigating clunky electronic medical records interfaces, which are often outdated, unresponsive, and difficult to learn.
This administrative burden can cause major delays in patient care, leading to longer wait times for patients and an overall reduction in access to family doctors.
But patients aren’t the only ones affected by this problem.
For doctors, the volume of paperwork is often so significant that many of them have to work after-hours, during lunch breaks, or even on their days off to complete it all. As a result, administrative tasks can become a serious factor in physician burnout over time.
So what’s the solution?
1. Reduce unnecessary paperwork.
One potential solution to this problem is to reduce the volume of unnecessary paperwork that doctors are required to complete.
Physicians report that, while many medical forms and documents are necessary, a lot of them are “longer and more detailed” than they need to be. To fix this, each commonly-used medical form should be reviewed by its associated governing body and simplified wherever possible.
By reducing the length of these forms by just 10-20%, we could see a reduction in work hours for physicians that is equivalent to 5.5 million patient visits per year. In turn, this could free up thousands of hours of time for additional direct patient care.
“By simply reducing paperwork, over 3.5 million Canadians could gain immediate access to a family doctor - even without adding any new doctors to the system”, says Alfred Wong, Chief Operations Officer of Cortico Health.
This estimation is based on numbers from a recent Ipsos poll, which found that 66% of Canadians (roughly 25.2 million people) see a family doctor one or less times per year.
The Ipsos poll suggests that there is a huge portion of the population that could benefit from increased access to family doctors. Reducing unnecessary paperwork could indirectly help address this issue.
2. Modernize electronic medical records (EMR) systems.
As mentioned above, physicians spend a large portion of their workday wrestling with electronic medical records (EMR) systems.
EMR systems are an essential tool in the day-to-day operations of clinics around the world - they help providers store, access and manage patient information, while also assisting with daily tasks like billing and interoffice communication.
However, many of these systems are actually making work more difficult for doctors. EMR interfaces are often slow and unresponsive, and they require a lot of manual input from physicians (which can take up hours of their time each week).
To fix this, medical software developers must adopt a more hands-on approach when designing their EMRs. They need to spend more time in clinics to see where the inefficiencies are cropping up, and they should start actively listening to the needs of Canadian healthcare workers so they can create practical, useful solutions to their problems.
By creating time-saving automations for administrative tasks, EMR developers could help clinics save 30 minutes of work (or more) every single day.
How Cortico can help.
Cortico’s practice management system is the software prescription for all the inefficiencies that plague Canadian clinics.
It’s designed by real healthcare professionals to help clinics automate unnecessary administrative tasks and bring their EMR systems into the modern era.
With Cortico, you can message patients, send automatic appointment reminders, and transfer files securely through your EMR in just a few clicks.
Eliminate tedious tasks and save 3+ hours of work each week so that you have more time for what really matters: direct patient care.
Try Cortico for free today! Click here to schedule a demo.
