Running Experiments To Be Efficient At Work

Clinical medicine is demanding. As a full-time physician, you most likely have very little down time. It is important to learn the skills to be efficient. If you are spending hours after seeing your last patient to finish your work, this blog is for you.

Analyze your current situation. How efficient are you? Set a goal. For example, if your last patient is scheduled to 4 pm, instead of finishing your charts and phone calls past 7 pm and beyond, you want to complete your work by 5 pm. Setting a goal gives you a direction. Make a goal that is realistic. Otherwise, your brain will believe that it is unachievable. The goal is your guide. Your goal is changeable. You may find that your goal is out of reach in the next month or two, but six months from now, you are consistently meeting your goal.

What works and what does not work? Even in an “epic failure”, you can find something that is working in your favor. In other words, examine how you normally operate your clinical day. What is helping you to be more efficient and what is not?

You do not have to do this alone. Look around you. Is there anyone in your department who has a similar workload? If that person finishes work on time, what is the secret? Do not be afraid to ask for help.

There is no one size fits all. That is why it is important to be open-minded about doing experiments. Something works for Dr. A does not mean that it will completely suit you and that is okay. This is the reason to try different methods and see what is best for you.

What work style do you do best in? This is chance to know yourself better. For example, in most situations, it is best to see a patient and do the chart, one at a time. However, it may not work as well for some physicians. For me, seeing one patient and doing their chart right away works best in the outpatient setting. In the best, I would pile up ten or more unfinished charts until the end of the day. By the time I finished seeing the last patient, I was exhausted and did not want to do more work. That did not work well for me, so I changed to seeing a patient and finishing their chart before going on to the next patient. There are rare occasions that I cannot finish a complicated patient chart right away; these days, if that happens, there are no more than three unfinished charts at the end of the day.

As for inpatients, I prefer seeing several patients before sitting down to do charting. As it takes longer for me to log into the electronic medical records from different computers, it is more efficient for me to return to the same computer throughout the day.

Try different methods to see what work you. You may work differently in different institutions to maximize efficiency. A big factor is the environment. Do you prefer to be quiet and alone, or do you prefer to be with other physicians? Do you work better when it is quiet or when there is music? Each factor affects your efficiency. Sometimes you may not even know what works best for you until you try it.

What about the method of patient documentation? First is to assess what is available. Do you have to pay out of pocket to have access to a program, such as a dictation program or an AI program? Many of these programs are designed to be more streamlined for your work. You just have to try out different things sometimes. You may work better with typing and dictating, while another physician is better with using a scribe. Yet another physician may best utilize the AI technology.  

Whatever it is, for every new experiment you try, evaluate what went well and what needs to improve. Whichever way you choose, the goal is to have an efficient day. There are infinite possibilities to make it work for you. Be patient. If something is not working as you anticipated, try something new. Set a goal for your work day. See what is available for you to utilize. As you do more experiments, it is easier to find your preference and style of working. Always reflect, analyze and grow from your experiments – you are getting closer to your goal.