Checking your task list is a clinic efficiency killer

How many times per day do you check your clinic efficiency killer…I mean, task list?

Hi. My name is Kate. I was guilty of checking my EMR (EHR) task list All. The. Time.

Between patient visits, procedures, phone calls. You name it. I was looking to see how many more things I needed to deal with.

Confession: up until very recently, I would’ve said regularly checking my task list (where my admin, colleagues and practice extenders can send tasks or reminders of things that need to be done for patients) was not a waste of time. It was staying on top of the list. Just like a good doctor does…right?

Maybe not.

When clinic efficiency hacks come from the grocery store

While standing at the grocery store check out, I unintentionally overhead the men ahead of me talking about how they manage their (email) inboxes. Not one to eavesdrop but always looking for efficiency hacks, I casually listened in.

This time the eavesdropping was worth it.

One of the two men (business-y types) said if he sees an email and it will take him less than 2 minutes to reply, he responds right away. Regardless of when or where he is.

His logic – if only a quick response is required, reading the email then leaving it to come back to again later will take more overall time than if he had just responded in the first place.

Call me intrigued.

The other guy time blocked his emails. Meaning he has defined times where all he does is email.

This had some legitimacy – James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) talks about time blocking a lot.

Huh.

When ‘staying on top of the task do list’ is actually a clinic efficiency killer

In the weeks following my eavesdropping, a trend became glaringly apparently – I was “just checking” my EMR task list but but leaving them to come back to later wayyyyyyyy too often.

Anyone else guilty of this? 🙋‍♀️

Per business man #1 above – those seconds or minutes of ‘just checking’ but not completing any of those tasks was wasted time = clinic efficiency killer.

If the tasks could wait, they probably didn’t need to be ‘checked up’ on.

How I turned it around with time blocking and a “no coming back to it later” policy

Since this girl loathes wasting time, I combined the two business men’s approaches:

1. Time blocking
   1. defined times where I addressed the task list (one block before and one block after the clinical day)
2. No ‘coming back to it later’
   1. when attacking the task list, the tasks get dealt with regardless of how long they take or painful they may be
   • two small exceptions:  if a long letter is required those may get moved to another time or if a conversation is required with another physician but they are not available.

My excuse for continuing to continually “just check”: what if there was a very time sensitive task I didn’t see?

My admin had the solution – she (and all other practice extenders) would label any time sensitive task as ‘very urgent’ in my EMR. This causes a pop-up window to open on my screen immediately. I have to at least look at this before doing anything else = no risk of “missing” anything time sensitive.

Otherwise, they now know I’ll be looking at my task list before and after the clinical day. No time in between.

Bingo.

Goal achieved: seconds and many mouse clicks saved per day.

The unexpected best part? My brain wasn’t percolating on a task I’d read but not dealt with. I wasn’t interrupting (read: killing) my own flow to check the task do list. More head space + time saved = win-win.

If your task list feels like your own personal prison warden:

1. start with defined times (that consistently work in your schedule) and share those with your team. The key and hard part: stick to them.
2. Figure out how your team can alert you of urgent or time-sensitive tasks.

Like all good things it may take some trial and error to figure out the optimal time blocks and duration. Finding the sweet spot is an easy way to improve your clinic efficiency, save time, create head space.

This is but one strategy. Let us know your task list strategies in the comments below!