Reclaiming Time in Medicine: The Proven Steps That Gave Me My Evenings Back

Before joining my coaching program, many physicians wonder how it is possible for me to reclaim three hours of my time a day, and how they can do the same. Although I do not have a magic wand, it is possible for physicians to be more efficient and gain back time to do what they want.

Just like you do most other things, preparation is an essential first step to achieving efficiency. Prepare three different things – your body, your mind and the material. By material, I mean for the work day. For example, if you are doing outpatient clinical work, it is best to know what your schedule is like, what patients you are seeing to see if you need to do anything in advance for them. Make sure you get new patient records beforehand so you have the time to review and see if you need more information or time to think about what the treatment plan is. If you are doing inpatient duty, before you start, it is helpful to discuss with your colleague who just finished their inpatient service, so that you have an idea of what to expect. If you are in a specialty that is hard to predict what to expect, such as in the emergency department, simply by preparing for the unexpected is helpful too.

Preparing your body is just as important. If you are not physically well, you cannot function well. Having adequate sleep, consuming a balanced diet and exercise are vital steps to achieving good health. As we always advise patients to take care of themselves, we, the physicians, need to take care of our own bodies.

Preparing for the mind starts before work. What attitude do you choose to bring to work? What do you decide to think your day will be like? Imagine if you let your default thinking that it is going to be a long and dreadful day. How do you feel and how will you show up? On the other hand, if you decide that your day will be manageable, how do you feel? And how will you show up differently? How we think affects how we feel, and how we feel affects how we do things. As we all have many different thoughts throughout the day, it is important to choose our thoughts carefully.

The second step in reclaiming your time is to do the patient charts right away. Many of you may immediately be resistant to this idea, because you believe that there is no time to chart immediately. If you chart right after seeing each patient, it takes less effort for you to recall from your memory as opposed to later. You will have more capacity to have better focus on your next patient (because you have completed the work related to the previous patient). A more focused mind leads to more efficiency.

The third step is to document only what is needed. Give yourself permission for not writing a novel. You do not require every single detail to formulate the assessment and plan for each patient. The more extra information you write, the more time is spent to complete each patient note.

In terms of how to do the actual documentation, there are several options. You can type, dictate in real time, use a scribe or AI. Know what options are available for you in your practice. If you are a private practice owner, you can explore different methods to see what best suits you. As an employed physician, see what options are available for you. Sometimes, what works best may be a combination of different methods.

Whatever way you choose to document, know your electronic medical record system well. Are there any keys for shortcuts? There are usually multiple ways to get a task done in the EMR – know the way that takes the least effort or strokes.

Avoid doing the same thing twice. For example, if you are in the exam room and you take notes on paper so that you can transfer the information to the EMR, that is duplicate work. Charting during the patient encounter or immediately after the encounter minimizes the need to take notes to “do it later”. And who wants to do the patient documentation days later?

No matter how you do the patient documentation, keep it simple. Use the same format to document. Use a template you like, for example. This is also a way to minimize missing information. When you use the same format to document, you do not have to think about how to record something in the patient’s chart.

Time is precious. When it is gone, we cannot buy it back. We can, however, reclaim time to do the same thing by being more efficient. The next time you see patients, give these steps a try and see what happens.