Healthcare Fatigue – Are You,Your Staff and Your Physicians Unusually Stressed?

Note: I am republishing this to my email subscribers because none of the links worked the first time around. I’ve fixed everything now – so sorry for the error – must have been healthcare fatigue!

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I’ve noticed that a lot of people in healthcare seem unusually tired and even, if I dare say so, somewhat cranky.  This includes me.  I’ve decided we’re all suffering from healthcare fatigue – fatigue from dealing on a daily basis with so much change, uncertainty, and financial stress.  Here’s my top ten list of healthcare management stressors accompanied by posts I’ve written that discuss the topic or suggest resources for the challenge.

10. Red Flags Rules – on again, off again, patients don’t want to have their pictures taken or let you copy their driver’s licenses.

Information Security Wordle: NIST HIPAA Securi...

Image by purpleslog via Flickr

9. HIPAA – don’t be fooled, HIPAA is not something we handled years ago and it’s taken care of; there are new requirements and penalties associated with HIPAA breaches.  HIPAA is a biggie and something that now infiltrates almost every facet of healthcare.

8.  Employment Uncertainty – both for you and your staff – the aftermath of layoffs can be even more demoralizing to those who didn’t lose their jobs.  Also, many healthcare entities are still freezing raises.  If I hear one more time “we’ll just have to do more with less” I might just scream.

The first day of Summer Vacation

Image by jcoterhals via Flickr

7. Unrealistic Workloads – directly related to #9, most staff and managers have much more work to do than they did just two years ago. Couple that with the ability for managers to be available and work by computer, phone, text message, email or Skype 24/7 and you have fatique that you understand only when you truly, truly stop and wind down for more than three days at a time.

6.  Hospitals Buying Practices – this could be a good thing or a bad thing, but as you and I know, change is completely unnerving to most people.  Hospitals have very different cultures than private practices and trying to marry the two takes skill, patience and excellent leadership.

An electronic medical record example

Image via Wikipedia

5.  Stimulus Money for Using EMRs – it’s a big decision and many practices are very nervous about purchasing an EMR.  Many think that meaningful use components are unrealistic and even more are fearful of the inevitable productivity drop when the EMR is implemented and for months afterwards.

4. Unhappy Patients – lots of patients are also trying to do more with less (argghhh!) and are avoiding coming to the doctor whenever possible.  The front desk staff and the phone staff in particular are getting a lot more heat when they inform patients they’ll have to make an appointment.

3.  PECOS – be glad if you don’t know what PECOS stands for, or be very, very afraid.

2. Medicare Reimbursement – this year has been as exhausting as watching a single point of ping pong played for hours – there will be cuts, there won’t be cuts, there will be cuts, there won’t be cuts.  Gird your loins as the November 30 deadline looms for the next potential cuts.

Wild West Railroad: Pecos Texas

Image by longhorndave via Flickr

1. The Bottom Line – we have RAC audits, more pre-certification and pre-authorization and pre-notification requirements, more denials, high deductible plans, formularies and 50 other things that are making it difficult to know which hoop to jump through to get paid.  Expenses continue to go up, reimbursement continues to go down, and the healthcare world spins faster and harder, making us all wonder when it will, or if it ever will slow down.

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