Once again, at the risk of branding myself a Luddite, I wish to pose the following:
If I look at the broad sweep of my tasks over the last few years, I find that I am using more and more of my physician time doing things that formerly were clerical. It used to be, I saw a patient, picked up a dictaphone, dictated a note, put down the chart, and while everything else was done by staff who were being paid at a much lower rate than I, went to see another patient.At the end of the day, I initialed off a dozen lab and x-ray slips and I was done. Now, fully 1/3 of my day is involved in activities that can be best described as clerk/typist. I have to deal with UpDox faxes and file them, do my own dictation and proofread it, see that prescriptions are sent to the correct pharmacy, download labs and notify patients, code the services, etc. And we are not even in a managed care environment with all that it requires.
While it can certainly be argued that AC makes these tasks EASIER, it can also be argued that it makes them NECESSARY.
Of those of you who have been in practice 5 years or more, how many can honestly say your practice is more efficient?
