Efficiency

10 min slots….says who ?

I’m not sure which genius decided 10 min slots were a good idea. But you can change to 15 min within your practice. The downside is you will finish much later to see the same number of patients. But you will have less stress and do a better job for your patients.

 

Rigid as a proctoscope or flexible as a flexi-sig

Think about what type of doctor you are (or want to be).

One of those doctors who is concerned/paranoid about getting sued and constantly says things like, ‘If it ain’t documented, then you did not do it’. The type that puts up objections to prescribing medicines which are off licence, even though a consultant tells you its fine and standard practice. The type that has to record ‘no cauda equina symptoms’ for every single back pain consult.

 

Or the type of doctor who lives life in a much less stressful way. Documenting reasonable stuff and missing out everything else. Realising that may get sued once or twice in their career, but that’s what the indemnity is there for. They know within their heart they did the right thing, but did not document it.

 

Documentation

If you want to be efficient try using ‘text expander’ software. You type an abbreviation (that you decide your self) and it types out the whole sentence.

e.g. if you type ‘CES’…it will type out ‘ no urinary incontinence or retention, bowel symptoms, saddle paraesthesia, or weakness in the legs’.

I recently spotted how to do this for free in Emis Web.