How should healthcare professionals manage their time? CureMD EMR 9:03 AM

Physicians are already very busy but they are about to get a lot busier with the Affordable Care Act and the influx of new patients in the market.

With so many patients health on the line, physicians don’t want increased demand to lead to below par service. This means you need to start managing your time now.

Let’s give you a few tips.

       Set goals: Take time to establish goals for your organization and create your short term, long term schedules. Make sure to write them down and discuss with your supervisor to gain additional input. Goals should be identifiable, measureable, and actionable. 

       Prioritize your tasks: Make sure you prioritize your tasks when you arrive for work and spend as little time on wandering around or on Facebook. Write all your tasks in a prominent location and post them where you can see them all day.

       Use technology: Modern healthcare systems like CureMD are designed to streamline healthcare practices by optimizing practice management and organizing health records. When your practice is online and organized, you and your patients save time. Patients can schedule their appointments, make changes, and communicate with your staff through the Patient Portal. 

See what they offer in their Practice Management solution.

     Use Electronic Health Records: If your employer hasn’t already done so, request that the organization switch to Electronic Health Records (EHR). Electronic records cut down on paperwork while making it easier to find pertinent patient information. The faster you can access and update patient records, the more everyone benefits.
For more information on the benefits of transitioning from paper charts to an electronic record solution, check out this white paper: 3 Steps to a Paperless Practice.

      Delegate your responsibilities: Don’t think you can do everything on your own. If you have help available, use it. Assistants, administrative staff, interns and volunteers are there for a reason. Take their help

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      Learn when to say no: Increased stress and decreased productivity aren’t goals you should strive for, so carefully consider requests and know when to turn someone down.

What time management tips can you offer to other healthcare professionals? Let us know in the comments section below.

Fewer Ophthalmologists linked to poorer retinopathy treatment CureMD EMR 11:36 AM

According to a study published in the April issue of JAMA Ophthalmology, fewer individuals with diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) receive care in areas with less access to ophthalmologists.

Diane M. Gibson, Ph.D., from Baruch College-City University of New York in New York City, utilized data from the 2005 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to identify 1,098 individuals with diabetes, 345 with diabetic retinopathy, and 498 with ARMD.

"Adequate access to ophthalmologists is necessary to ensure that this large number of individuals at high risk of and already affected by diabetic retinopathy or ARMD have the best visual health outcomes possible," Gibson writes.

Researchers found that individuals who lived in a county in the highest ophthalmologist availability quartile were less likely to be unaware they had diabetic retinopathy (predictive margin [PM], 66.1 versus 84.1 percent). They were also less likely to have vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (PM, 1.4 versus 2.6 percent), compared to individuals who lived in a county in the lower three quartiles of ophthalmologist availability.

Those living in a county in the lowest quartile of ophthalmologist availability were more likely to be unaware they had ARMD (PM, 93.8 versus 88.3 percent), compared to those living in a county in the higher three quartiles of ophthalmologist availability. No outcomes were significantly tied to optometrist availability quartiles.