An Arabic proverb says, “He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.” Health is one of human’s most important assets. Thus, improving the daily workplace practices of those who take care of us — doctors, nurses, and all other physicians — with better healthcare technology is vital.
In fact, research over the years has shown that many healthcare workers (HCWs) are burned out, either from unnecessary managerial tasks, mental health strains, or lack of rest. What’s more, 60% of HCWs surveyed by the Canadian Medical Association said that administrative burden was a direct contributor to burnout and worsening mental health.
Technology in healthcare, especially modern approaches like automation, higher interoperability, and the cloud, are helping reduce human error and burnout so HCWs can focus on taking care of their patients.
Nursing Productivity: Impact of Healthcare Technology
In 2024, 39% of nurses reported that their burnout was worse than the year prior, with 83% expressing that their employers haven’t taken action to address this.
While mental and physical exhaustion encompasses several factors, helping nurses complete their administrative tasks with more efficiency can make a massive difference in how much time they spend inputting information instead of taking a break or further connecting with their patients.
Let’s see how technological solutions are addressing this area of improvement.
Healthcare Technology Supporting Busy Physicians and Nurses
The Healthtech market has evolved enough to offer specialized solutions for every vertical of the healthcare industry. For example, our parent company’s healthtech software, Canela’s NurseNotes, aids school nurses who perform audiometry and vision tests in streamlining data intake and collection, uploading records to the school district system, and visualizing test results.
This software and similar ones in other healthcare areas are giving time back to physicians and nurses so they can spend it on more critical tasks, plus it helps in reducing human error — effectively improving the overall quality of care and HCW satisfaction with automation and other modern tech.
Centralizing Information Access
While technology in healthcare has played a massive role in improving service quality, it isn’t without its ups and downs for HCWs. One major issue plaguing workers is the lack of interoperability between software programs. One system for electronic health records (EHR), another one for managing patient scheduling, a third one for medical billing, and a hundred more to support the several tasks at hospitals and physician offices.
A nurse in the American healthcare system posits that interoperability is the future of her profession, helping minimize burnout and frustration at work.
Solutions like cloud-based integration or integration platform as a service (iPaaS), are addressing the issue of decentralization by bridging communication between every medical software — from email hosts to EHR, scheduling, and patient intake programs. Not for nothing the iPaaS market is experiencing 35.4% annual growth between 2023 and 2032.
Reducing Medical Billing Errors
Medical billing has always felt like an uphill battle for the healthcare industry. Whether patients are incorrectly billed, claims are wrongfully denied, or organizations face underpayment, this task can become a major headache for those in the administrative department.
For instance, half of the patients surveyed by Zelis and Hanover Research found incorrect charges of at least $200 in their bills. Such mistakes have led to unfair overbilling, often stemming from human error in the billing process.
Dedicated billing programs employ tools that can prevent these errors or even the prospect of intentional overbilling for patients. Many of these systems resort to automated clinical coding, which pairs equipment, medical procedures, and other healthcare assets, with the correct code to avoid inaccuracies when drafting bills.
These solutions also reduce the workload for medical staff when listing charges for medical bills and allow for better revenue cycle control — a win-win for both patients and the healthcare industry.
Healthcare technology is giving way to solutions that are making shifts more manageable for all HCWs, translating into more productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. This positive impact tackles issues like burnout and the ongoing nurse turnover, which has minimally improved in recent years. These positive changes in administrative practices stemming from tech adoption also result in better service quality and overall positive patient outcomes.
Interested in improving practices for your school district’s nurses? Get in touch with the NurseNotes team to begin the journey toward better audiometry and vision testing in schools.
