Imagine if you could turn your EHR into a tool that helps you save time instead of a burden that contributes to your feeling of burnout.

You can, and the “AMA STEPS Forward ™ Time Saving Guide” will guide you, whether you work in a physician-owned private practice or other practice setting. Part 1 of the three-part playbook will teach you how to stop doing unnecessary work and save time by:

• Eliminate unnecessary tasks and duplicate work.
• Streamline prescribing and prescription management for chronic disease.
• Optimize the EHR for doctors and healthcare teams.

The playbook highlightsAMA NOT forwardâ„¢ free access toolkits. The AMA STEPS Forward program offers innovative strategies that enable physicians and their staff to thrive in the new healthcare environment. These courses can help you prevent burnout, create the organizational basis for joy in medicine and improve the efficiency of practice.

The “Saving Time Playbook” – which also includes sections on Integrating Fundamentals of Practice and Advocacy of Leadership – highlights key messages and provides links to free online toolkits, videos, podcasts, and how-to tools you can use to initiate change in your practice today.

Doctors usually know exactly what tasks during the day are the “dumb stuff”. They are the ones who take the time, but add no value to patient care and, in fact, take away any time they could be spending with patients.

However, many doctors may not feel empowered to speak up unless asked to do so. As pointed out in the playbook, WADA “Get rid of stupid stuffThe toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to creating a comprehensive program for involving teams and clinicians in collecting information.

An unimplementation checklist is a good way to jumpstart your private practice to purge out some of the stupid stuff. Some of these can be easily eliminated, such as changing the automatic logout delay for the EHR to 15 minutes and disabling automatic notifications in the inbox for copied test results ordered by other physicians, and for order and test schedule confirmations.

Some unnecessary work may take more investigation, time, and resources to get rid of, but it’s worth considering whether this makes sense for your private practice.

STEPS Forward is part of the AMA Education Centerâ„¢, an online learning platform that brings together high-quality CME, certification maintenance, and educational content from trusted sources, all in one place, with activities that matter to you, automated tracking credits and reports for certain states and specialized councils. Learn more about AMA CME accreditation.

Refilling a patient’s prescriptions at the same visit once a year could save you hours each week. The “Annual prescription renewalThe toolkit teaches you, among other things, how to save up to five hours per week by writing chronically ill patients a 90-day reserve filled four times a year during the annual wellness visit.

The “Medication managementThe toolkit details steps to help optimize the management of patients’ existing medications, including:

• Adopt synchronized annual prescription renewals and standing orders to prescribe effectively.
• Streamline the pre-authorization process for prescription drugs.
• Leverage DSE to confirm recharge data.

There are ways to keep unnecessary messages out of your cart. And it could save you a lot of time per day, as studies show doctors can spend an hour or two a day doing office work “between visits.”

The “Restructuring of the In-basket EHR for improved efficiencyThe toolkit will help you prevent unnecessary messages from going to your inbox, guide you through setting up a centralized team basket, and suggest ways to empower team members. contribute significantly to the management of the basket.

Learn how the “Optimization of the patient portalThe Toolkit can help you effectively manage the Patient Portal component of the EHR Bin, including how an established workflow improves the way the healthcare team responds to messages.

It takes sound clinical judgment, effective collaboration with colleagues, and innovative problem-solving to succeed in an independent environment that is often fluid, and AMA provides the resources and support physicians need to start and maintain the process. success in private practice.

Learn more about WADA’s Private Practice Physicians Section, which seeks to preserve the freedom, independence and integrity of private practice.