There are countless frustrations and bureaucratic hurdles that stand in the way of physicians spending time with their patients and experiencing job fulfillment, but the American Medical Association has launched a new tool to help physicians minimize stress and overcome barriers to providing quality care.
"When I was a young physician, only a few years into my practice, I realized that if I was going to stay in practice and thrive, I needed to change the way I organized my work," said Christine Sinsky, MD, an internist in Dubuque, Iowa, and vice president of professional satisfaction at AMA. "I realized that I needed to spend much less time documenting the visit and chasing after results and find a way to spend more time really focused on the patient. Otherwise, I wasn't going to be able to stay in practice."
To help physician practices thrive, AMA has launched a new website, called STEPS Forward, that offers numerous educational modules aimed at helping physicians address common practice challenges while simultaneously earning continuing medical education credit.
The STEPS Forward website includes the following 16 modules.
1. Conducting effective team meetings
2. Creating strong team culture
3. Electronic health record implementation
4. EHR software selection and purchase
5. Expanding rooming and discharge protocols
6. Improving blood pressure control
7. Improving physician resiliency
8. Medication adherence
9. Panel management
10. Preventing physician burnout
11. Preventing type 2 diabetes in at-risk patients
12. Pre-visit laboratory testing
13. Pre-visit planning
14. Starting lean healthcare
15. Synchronized prescription renewal
16. Team documentation
All of the modules include comprehensive steps for implementation, case studies and downloadable tools and resources. More than 25 modules are expected to be added by the end of the year.
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