How the Right Data Analytics Diminish Administrative Burden on Clinicians

Data flooding the healthcare industry has the potential to completely revolutionize patient care and drive improved health outcomes. Yet when left inadequately structured or under-automated, the deluge of data is one contributing factor to administrative burden — a pervasive issue affecting clinicians across most specialties. Eighty percent of physicians today are professionally overextended or at capacity, leaving them with no time to see additional patients, according to the 2016 Physicians Foundation survey.

This finding is troubling for many reasons, one of which is the fact that the majority of physicians consider patient relationships the most satisfying part of their job. In short, administrative tasks or other work that takes clinicians away from patients directly contributes to their overall morale, or lack thereof. Physicians are not data-averse — they just need data that is prioritized, meaningful and able to inform decisions. When faced with a wealth of unstructured data, physicians may become overwhelmed and have difficulty driving actionable insights. Research shows prolonged task saturation yields cognitive overload, leading to more stress and anxiety.

As data grows more sophisticated in healthcare, hospitals and health systems are devoting more attention to the caregiver experience and how data can bolster it. From operational analytics to genomic data, care teams are exposed to a vast amount of information each hour of the day. CMIOs increasingly see the need to preserve their clinicians' cognitive energy and equip them with the data most likely to yield the greatest returns on efficiency, patient safety, health outcomes and patient satisfaction...