3 Ways a Urology-Specific EHR Can Help Combat Urologist Workforce Shortages

How updated and enhanced software features can help you spend less time being clerical and allow you to address increasing patient demand during a workforce shortage.

The pandemic has created a tipping point that has caused society to pay more attention to the impact of physician burnout. Compounding that reality is that the aging urology workforce is leading to a urologic workforce shortage. According to the American Urological Association (AUA), nearly 30% of the urology workforce is 65+, and the median age of urologists is 55—a population that is inching towards retirement. What’s more, the AUA reports that only 38% of U.S. counties have a practicing urologist, and this shortage is expected to intensify as the patient population ages. And the Association of American Medical Colleges reports there are growing concerns that physician burnout could lead to an acceleration in retirement.

In a recent study of over 12,000 physicians, Death by 1000 Cuts: Medscape National Physician Burnout & Suicide Report 2021, it was reported that one out of ten physicians have considered leaving medicine due to the stress and anxiety they experience on a daily basis. What’s more, over 70% of physicians consider burnout to have at least a moderate impact on their lives. And while the COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn’t help matters, the study reported that 79% of physicians said their burnout began before the pandemic.

So if you’re a Urologist and you’re feeling burned out from increasing patient demand amongst a shortage of providers, realize that you’re not alone. In addition to the pandemic, our aging population, increased regulations, and clunky electronic health records (EHR) platforms all have an impact. But for urologists and their practice teams, it may not surprise you to know that the report also revealed that urology was near the top of the list of the highest-ranked specialties experiencing burnout.

Is physician burnout an inevitability for urologists?

While the stressors placed on urologists continue to increase, fortunately, there has also been an increase in effective, time-saving EHR tools for urologists that could help you and your team stress less—and having the right specialty-specific EHR matters. At Modernizing Medicine^®, we’ve reimagined our urology-specific platform to help streamline operations and speed up documentation. Built by urologists for urologists, it is designed to allow urologists to focus more of their time on what matters most. For some physicians, that means treating more patients. For others, it means simplifying documentation and streamlining operations so you can leave the office on time and enjoy evenings without having to catch up on clinical notes.

Here are the three time-saving features we’ve recently enhanced in our modmed^® Urology software that could help reduce burnout for you and your urology practice team.

1. Simplified tracking of patient health data to help spot trends and assist with chronic care management.

For urologists, the ability to easily track lab results, vitals and more is key to spotting trends in your patient health history and helping you make informed decisions about future treatment. With EMA^®, our urology-specific EHR, this data is easily accessible at your fingertips. Our intuitive workflows allow urologists to quickly view patients’ historical visit information, clinical results, procedure details and more on a single screen—no more toggling. You can even import relevant historical information to a current visit note in a matter of seconds, apply filters and add summary notes.

2. Population of urinalysis and lab results into EMA with the click of a button.

Is your office still entering lab and urinalysis results line by line? Our urology-specific workflow provides a quick way to document lab results with the click of a button. And, if you have a Siemens Healthineers CLINITEK Status^®+ Analyzer with CLINITEK Status^® Connect System*, urinalysis results flow seamlessly into EMA. The available printless barcode scanning eliminates the extra step of manually entering patient demographic information for each urinalysis result.

3. Built-in, urology-specific content, suggested documentation and coding.

Just as urology differs from all other medical specialties, no two urologists practice exactly the same way. EMA comes equipped with urology-specific diagnoses and treatment plans, allowing you to document your patient visit while they are in the room without typing or dictating. EMA’s predictive algorithm intuitively adapts from provider to provider, patient to patient and diagnosis to diagnosis, remembering your preferences so it can deliver what you need, right when you need it.

EMA also suggests ICD-10 codes and uses E/M coding to suggest notes and generate bills based on your clinical documentation for your review, helping you finish charting while your patient is still in the room.

Your EHR should add time back to your day, not take it away.

In this short video, Dr. Nadeem Dhanani, Medical Director of Urology at Modernizing Medicine^® and a practicing urologist, demonstrates how quick and easy it is to document a patient visit using EMA.

If you are a physician who needs support and a listening ear to cope with burnout, help is available. The Physician Support Line is free, confidential and open seven days a week. It was created by psychiatrists to help their US physician colleagues and medical students navigate the stressors of physicians’ personal and professional lives. Call 888.409.0141.