Administrative Task Time
The Second Annual Practice Profitability Index surveyed around 5000 physicians and found the following percentages of time physicians spend on administrative work every week, according to the report:
• 0 to 10 percent of time— 9 percent
• 11 to 20 percent of time — 20 percent
• 21 to 30 percent of time — 28 percent
• 31 to 40 percent of time — 20 percent
• 42 to 50 percent of time — 12 percent
• More than 50 percent of time — 11 percent
I am going to move past the obscene part that 11% of docs spend more than 50% of their time on useless crap Here is the bigger question I have? Who spends less than 10 percent of their time on administrative work? The cited article doesn’t say but it is either Direct Primary Care docs, of which there are few, or doctors who have scribes. I am finding that more and more specialists using scribes now. Once again, due to cost, it is becoming a system of the have and the have nots. No hospital will pay for family docs to have scribes. And no family doctor can afford one. Once again we lose.
Which brings me to a joke. Or maybe it is a Match Game question. I know the punch line part but I need you to give me the first part. Here goes.
“You may find a ______ with a _____ before you see a family doctor with a scribe”.
You may see an AAFP executive with knowledge of the real world before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You may find a politician with an ability to tell the truth before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You may find a hospital administrator with an appreciation of the emergency room physician before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You will see Satan with Frostbite before you see a primary care doc with a scribe.
You may see a health care administrator with any sense regarding patient care before you see a family doc with a scribe.
“Who spends less than 10 percent of their time on administrative work?”
I do, baby.
Urgent care, salary, no administrative bullshit, no referrals, no prior auths.
Just see the patient, type the note, see the next patient, go home at the end of the day.
You may see a dermatologist with a pickup before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You may see a pathologist with a personality before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You may see a radiologist with an ability to converse with patients before you see a family doc with a scribe.
You may see a surgeon with humility before you see a family doc with a scribe.
No time to do more…
Bingo. Thats my version of “cash only”