Exclusive article by Ricardo J. Ibarria, Founder and CEO of Hygeia
Primary care, in the U.S. but really in general, is under alot of heat from every direction. It’s well documented that the shortage of doctors & nurses, as well as the onset of baby boomers & new patients from the ACA are compressing this segment of healthcare. Wearables are incredible, but they’re not helping clinicians too much at the moment except that they might marginally reduce a premium. Already in reimbursement, one can see a shift in how patients are trying to seek lower cost care on their own. This problem isn’t unique to the United States and it’s a global epidemic. Brazil,China, and India, countries with some of the highest GDP growths over the last decade, are all experiencing relatable issues of access and quality.
What is surprising to discover is that in the largest clinical study of nurse time ever conducted (they used pagers, so it is really old), documentation consumed 35.3% of a nurses time:
Isn’t this insightful! The same can be said of doctors: they’re staring at computers for more than half the time in which they’re in front of a patient for only 8 minutes (this is actually lower now). Documentation, especially for something as important as healthcare, is necessary, but unlike every other industry, why can’t the extraneous activities be delegated toautomation? If labor is the largest driver of cost in a health system & documentation consumes most of a laborers time, wouldn’t the best place to start saving time and money be in automating documentation?
Automation, or semi-automation, is the real ripe area for picking in healthcare. If you were to click the last automation link, you’d find that the CEO & Founder at Wellbe also believes that the biggest benefit to automation in healthcare will be realized in the reduction of labor. You can add clinicians, automate triage, implement a telehealth solution, or develop new business models for payment, but it’s my hope that you’re doing something because you’re now more aware of the issues surrounding the struggle to deliver basic healthcare services to people around the world.
