6 ways to make the most of the time you have with your patients

Time. It’s probably the one thing clinicians wish they could self-prescribe. Unfortunately, that’s not an option and clinicians are expected to maintain the same high-quality of care to every patient while coping with the demands of today’s healthcare system.

Working harder isn't your only option – you could work smarter to remove some of the stress from your day-to-day life and focus on the most important part of your working day: your patients. Medical transcription software and services are one way to work smarter, but that’s not all you can do. Here are our top tips to help you make the most of your time with your patients.

#1 Start your day on time

If you start the day late, then you’ll be playing catch up for the rest of the day and may rush your appointments. Get to the office early to get settled in and plan your day, then see your first patient on time.

#2 Avoid unnecessary breaks and distractions

An occasional break is sometimes necessary, but don’t get into the habit of pausing between patients for too long. Maintain your focus and keep your eye on the clock; this will help you maximise the time with your patients.

When you are in the office, try to be as efficient as possible. Turn off your personal phone to avoid getting pulled into online distractions, and only take breaks between patients when you really need them.

#3 Actively listen

Active listening is an essential tool for any healthcare professional, helping you understand their problems, give the best advice, and build rapport. To practice active listening:

• Listen to what the patient says
• Repeat what they said
• Check your understanding with the patient

When practicing active listening, you should reflect the feeling or intent behind the patient’s words, listening to understand, not to respond. In the long run, this will help you save time and get the most out of the appointment.

#4 Minimise bureaucracy

Patients do not want to provide the same information over and over again before they see you. What’s more, you certainly don’t want to waste precious time asking your patient to fill in form after form where they have to give their name, address and insurance information.

So, you may want to consider switching to a digital system where you auto-fill responses you already know and just confirm the information you have is correct.

#5 Dictate your notes

If you still keep longhand records, make a change and digitally document the patient encounter. Not only will you save time, but your notes will also be more thorough and legible.

Also, try to dictate your notes immediately after you see a patient. In doing so, you save more time as you don’t have to go back and review a patient’s history or the appointment notes. Your encounter with the patient will also be fresh in your mind, reducing the likelihood of errors.

#6 Digitise with some medical transcription software and services

Medical transcription software and services can help you streamline your clinical correspondence and document production, removing one of your major time sinks – data entry.

However, some medical transcription software and services are cumbersome. You may have been stung in the past and ended up using a difficult and time-consuming product that actually drains your time, rather than saving it.

At T-Pro, we help healthcare organisations of all sizes with their medical transcription. We could help you save significant costs, while enabling your staff to focus on the tasks that matter most – providing quality patient care.

We have provided medical transcription services for over a decade and are now one of the most experienced transcription service providers in today’s market. In fact, our specialist workforce of global and local transcriptionists transforms millions of minutes of dictation into clinical documents every year using our state-of-the-art medical transcription software platform.

As a result, our outsourced teams can clear your existing transcription backlogs with guaranteed turnaround times, to meet your SLAs. What’s more, this service is available around the clock, so you can send in your dictations at the end of the day and they’ll be ready for review ASAP.

When you get your transcription back, it’s also available on our data-driven reporting and analytics dashboards, allowing you to access all vital patient information in one place, ready for the next appointment. It’s a highly efficient system and, as a result, you’ll have more time to spend with your patients.