How Can I Use Digital Tools to Improve Clinical Workflows?

The tasks of healthcare practitioners include doing various things every day. The tasks include carrying out patients’ examinations, keeping updated medical records, interacting with other colleagues, giving prescriptions, and doing administrative work. All these have to be done at the same time, and it can be quite challenging.

In fact, a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found that primary care physicians spend nearly 2 hours working in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) for every 1 hour of direct patient care, showing how administrative tasks can take valuable time away from patients.

That is why most hospitals and health care institutions are adopting various technologies to make the clinical process better.

In the medical field, technology assists health care providers in doing their work faster, reduces paperwork, enhances communication, and gives them enough time to take care of their patients.

What Is a Clinical Workflow?

The clinical process is a set of procedures that are followed by health professionals in order to give care to their patients. In many healthcare organizations, including those using a DPC (Direct Primary Care) model, this process begins when a patient schedules an appointment and continues through diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care, and billing or membership management, depending on the practice's care model.

The clinical process involves stages such as

• Patient registration
• Medical record review
• Symptoms/vital signs documentation
• Test ordering/labelling/doing
• Making a diagnosis
• Treatment planning
• Medication prescription
• Appointment scheduling for the next visit
• Documentation of all the above stages

If these steps are executed correctly, then the quality of patient care improves significantly.

What Are Digital Tools in Healthcare?

Digital tools refer to software applications, web-based technologies, and devices that assist healthcare providers in carrying out their day-to-day tasks. These technologies have replaced traditional manual methods with more efficient digital alternatives.

Some of the most popular digital tools include

• Electronic health records
• Telehealth services
• Decision support systems for clinicians
• Appointment management software
• Patient portals
• Mobile applications for healthcare
• Artificial intelligence technologies
• Remote patient monitoring technologies
• Messaging systems
• Healthcare billing software

All of these tools assist in various steps of the clinical workflow process.

How Digital Tools Improve Clinical Workflows

Digital technologies enhance every step of patient care. This is how digital technologies help improve clinical workflows.

1. Centralize Patients' Data

The search for documents in paper format is time-consuming and may lead to omissions of important data.

All data regarding patients past medical history, drug therapy, allergies, test results, treatment plan, and information regarding the visit are collected together into a single unit in Electronic Health Records. The data is accessible by the healthcare provider anytime.

This will make decision-making easier and faster.

2. Decrease Documentation Efforts

Healthcare professionals may spend the majority of their time on documentation.

Using digital forms, voice recognition technologies, and templates allows documentation to be performed much faster and more uniformly. Providers need to do less work since they have to click fewer times.

Thus, the saved time can be used for patient care.

3. Enhance Communication Among Healthcare Professionals

The collaboration of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory specialists, and other specialists is an inevitable part of patient care.

Digital communication platforms will enable collaboration among healthcare professionals and provide everyone with up-to-date data about patients.

Thus, patient care will be improved significantly.

4. Facilitate Better Clinical Decisions

Many vital decisions are taken by healthcare professionals on a day-to-day basis.

With the use of clinical decision support systems, healthcare professionals get advice on the basis of analysis of the patient’s data. These systems could notify the medical professional about possible drug interactions, allergies, test duplications, and overdue screenings.

These notifications lead to improved patient care and no mistakes at all.

5. Help Schedule Efficiently

Appointment scheduling on paper could result in double bookings, missed appointments, and long waiting times.

The digital system helps patients schedule their appointments using online booking and helps the staff keep track of the calendar and reduce the number of appointments missed thanks to automatic reminder texts and emails.

It makes the work of clinics more efficient and well-organized.

6. Increase Access Using Telehealth

Thanks to telehealth, patients have a chance to communicate with healthcare professionals virtually, via secure video or phone calls.

Such virtual visits could be useful for routine check-ups, prescription refills, management of chronic diseases, and for those patients who live far away from healthcare facilities.

7. Remotely Monitor Your Patients

A lot of patients suffering from chronic illnesses require continuous monitoring even between doctor visits.

Remote patient monitoring equipment will help you collect data, including

• Blood pressure
• Blood glucose levels
• Heart rate
• Level of oxygen
• Weight

Data will be transferred directly to the healthcare provider for further analysis and adjustments to the treatment plan. This allows for maintaining continuous care and minimizing unneeded visits to the hospital.

8. Employ Artificial Intelligence to Gain More Time

AI is becoming an essential tool for healthcare workers.

It will allow doing

• Summaries of the clinical documentation
• Patient record organization
• Identification of high-risk patients
• Possible diagnosis suggestions
• Patients' needs prediction
• Administrative tasks

AI is not meant to replace healthcare professionals. It simply helps them to do their routine tasks faster.

Benefits of Using Digital Tools in Clinical Workflows

There are many benefits that health care institutions gain after implementing digital technology.

Improved Health Care

The professionals have easy access to the patients' data, which allows them to make more informed decisions faster.

Decreased Number of Errors

Due to digitalization, there are fewer errors in writing, fewer repeated medical tests, fewer drug prescription mistakes, and lack of necessary information.

Increased Efficiency

As a result of the automation of a lot of repetitive processes, workers perform tasks faster and more productively.

Time for Patients

As less time is needed for paperwork and other activities, there is more time for communicating with patients.

Effective Cooperation

All information about the patient is readily available to doctors, nurses, pharmacists, specialists, and others; this helps coordinate their work.

Patient Satisfaction

The advantages to the patient are that they have reduced wait time, easier appointment booking, access to medical records online, and communication with the health care provider.

More Data for Making Decisions

Institutions can use reports and analyses provided by a digitalized system to monitor their performance and improve health care delivery.

Challenges of Using Digital Tools

While digital technology provides several advantages, healthcare providers may encounter certain difficulties when implementing it.

Training of Personnel

The introduction of any software is accompanied by a need for staff training. Otherwise, there will be no improvements in productivity due to a lack of guidance.

Financial Cost of Implementation

There will be a need for purchasing software and modernizing the equipment, which means that healthcare practices should invest money.

Data Security

Medical institutions should make sure patient data is safe from potential dangers in cyberspace. Passwords, encryption, updating the software regularly, and other similar measures are required.

Integration of Systems

Software should integrate well to avoid duplication of effort and slow down rather than speed up healthcare processes.

Resistance to Change

Certain healthcare professionals might be attached to traditional techniques and might be reluctant to switch to new ones.

Best Practices for Improving Clinical Workflows with Digital Tools

Just buying any software will not automatically lead to success. Healthcare facilities need to adhere to best practices when using digital technologies.

Choose Suitable Technology

Opt for technology that suits your facility rather than picking the most expensive and sophisticated one available on the market.

Involve Healthcare Professionals

Ensure that the staff from different departments participate in the evaluation of new technologies due to their understanding of the problems.

Continual Training

Conduct training on a regular basis to ensure that your employees feel confident as technology changes.

Go Gradually

Adopting one technology at a time helps in making the transition easier.

Measure Outcomes

Observe certain metrics such as waiting periods, appointment efficiency, accuracy of documentation, and productivity of healthcare professionals to check if digital technologies contribute to the improvement of workflows.

Update Software Regularly

Updates increase the security of your software, fix possible issues, and introduce new useful features.

Conclusion

Digital technologies have become an integral element of modern healthcare practices. Digital tools help improve clinical workflow because of factors such as patient data structuring, minimizing paperwork, facilitating better communication, providing assistance in decision-making, enhancing telemedicine services, and automating some processes.

Although the implementation of any new technology entails proper planning, training, and investment, its effects will be positive in the long term. Healthcare professionals will be able to perform their jobs more efficiently and focus on their primary goals – delivering quality healthcare services to patients.

Properly choosing appropriate digital tools, training staff, and constantly working on improving workflows will result in a better and more patient-oriented healthcare system in the future.