Burnout in healthcare: Why technology may be the cure

Hospitals and clinics that were overwhelmed by Covid-19 face a growing burden: healthcare workers who are overwhelmed.

Nearly 50 percent of clinicians report symptoms of burnout, and the turnover rate among nurses has increased significantly, doubling since before Covid-19. This isn’t merely a ripple effect of the pandemic. It’s a long-term challenge to our healthcare system that is unlikely to change without some fundamental rethinking about how we deliver care.

This week, at HLTH USA 2022, I shared my perspective on this and why I believe technology might be the answer – but only if it is deployed in a way that lets clinicians spend less time with devices and more time directly with patients.

The unintended consequence of the advances in medical technology we have witnessed in the past decade is that healthcare providers must now keep up with an array of devices and data. Learning to manage all these devices has become a required skill for people trained to care for patients.

In a busy ICU, there can typically be over 750 alerts per patient each day generated by more than three dozen devices. The data they produce can be crucial, even life-saving – but it’s also fragmented and time-consuming. It contributes significantly to stress, fatigue and strain on clinicians, and takes time away from patient care.

Today, clinicians and nurses spend nearly 65 percent of their time looking at a computer screen – because that is what the technology demands. According to the Surgeon General, for every 1 hour of direct patient care, a primary care provider will spend 2 hours a day on administrative tasks. Think about that: in a 12-hour shift, that’s 4 hours of time spent with the patient and 8 hours of administration and data entry.

Again, less time directly caring for patients.

My test for technology is whether it is truly smart and connected. By that I mean, can a device work not just for its own specific focus, but cohesively with the myriad other devices operating in a real-world clinical setting? Can we apply AI and analytics to the data it produces so that it streamlines information and workflows, automates recurring tasks and reduces the daily burden on clinicians?

When done right, devices and data do the work; caregivers get the insights. This saves them time and allows them to operate at the top of their license, rather than be overwhelmed by mundane tasks. This can play a huge role in reducing burnout.

While there has been much talk about an age of robot nurses and metaverse medicine, the reality is much more down to earth – and far more practical. In the hospital, smart devices can automate or provide guardrails for a range of rote tasks, such as delivering medication, monitoring infusions and managing patient temperature. The results are automatically entered into the electronic medical record – eliminating the drudgery of data entry that clinicians dread.  

When devices talk to each other, there is even less data juggling for caregivers – it cuts out the middleman. By connecting and synthesizing data, smart medtech systems inform clinical decisions exactly when needed. The devices generate insights, not paperwork.

Smart and connected technology is just as important in labs and pharmacies as hospitals – and the faster it is embraced, the better it is for clinicians. When a lab process is automated, it gives more accurate test results, which smart pharmacy equipment and platforms can instantly flag when a risk or side effect is detected.

These decisions have traditionally been the responsibility of already busy nurses, doctors and clinicians who had to double check test results and prescriptions against a medical history. This is the work that now belongs to AI and analytics.

The same technology will soon be coming to people’s homes with the explicit goal of keeping people out of the clinic altogether. Home tests for COVID, flu or strep throat and other simple tasks are increasingly connected and can deliver results to a doctor or clinician without any human interference. Routine check-ins and monitoring are part of a great wave of automated care that will shape the next generation of medicine.

Accelerating this transformation is central to the work of BD . We see this as a vast area ready for pioneering ideas in healthcare. Today, we make some 3 million smart devices connected to EMRs in more than 70 percent of U.S. hospitals, as well as analytics and software, ranging from medication management to lab processes to pharmacies. We are investing heavily in these spaces because of the incredible opportunity they can bring to advancing the future of healthcare. We don’t think of this as “futuristic.” We think about it as the way healthcare should work. Progress is already underway, with a growing number of smart solutions entering the clinic and hospital system. 

While it may seem counterintuitive, smart care is not only more efficient, but more human. For clinicians who have seen their most meaningful work increasingly displaced by IT management and data overload, it means they can re-focus on the patient and the provision of fulfilling, high-value care.  

#futureofhealthcare #medtech