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(17,202 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,629 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,664 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)3catwoman3
(24,006 posts)If I see more than 15 a day, I feel like a beached fish. I am so fortunate to only work 2 days a week.
Aristus
(66,381 posts)They schedule up to 26, counting on no-shows and cancellations. Wednesday, I saw 25.
I'm okay with it right now. I'm drinking enough to deaden my brain-ache...
3catwoman3
(24,006 posts)On a good day, it probably takes me 10 minutes per chart to get the documentation complete. So, 15 patient is 150 minutes/2.5 hours on the computer. I don't know how it is with adults, but in pediatrics, the actual face-to-face time of the office visit usually takes every second of the 20 minute appointment time allotted. I do my morning charts during my lunch "break," and then my afternoon charts after all the patients have left - on my own unpaid time. I get in what info I can during each visit, but am next to never done with a record at the end of a visit.
If I had to see 24 patients, that would be 4 hours of documentation time. I would lose my mind.
Aristus
(66,381 posts)Also, it has an auto-text feature that allows me to fill in entire paragraphs of free text with just a few keystrokes. I try as often as possible to chart the visit right after seeing the patient. If I fall behind by putting off the charting, I'm liable to stay behind. I know of some colleagues who have as many as 60 chart notes open at a time, waiting to be documented and closed out. I've heard rumors of providers who have hundreds of charts open. I don't know how they'd ever close them and still retain a memory of the visit to guide them.
Every weekend, I have a few charts to finish up; usually complex patients for whom I filled in the bullet points, ordered the lab tests, prescribed the medications, and clicked on a few exam results. I use the free time on the weekends to complete the documentation and close the charts.
It goes without saying that once a chart is closed out, it goes to billing so the clinic can get paid. My bosses like it that I'm a good reliable source of revenue. I only care about providing good clinical medicine, but if the admins don't want to continue employing me, nothing else matters much...
Anyone who works in pediatrics has my deepest respect...
3catwoman3
(24,006 posts)Thanks. I've been in peds my whole career. 20 years at my present office, and 40 years as a nurse practitioner.
It often feels as if we have 2 sets of patients - the kids AND the parents. If I have a weeping mother in front of me (a not uncommon occurrence), computer be damned. That mom is getting my full, face-to-face attention while I listen to her concerns.
There are days when no child seems to have a simple, clear-cut problem, and I go home feeling as if I have "left it all on the field" - emotionally spent.
Retirement beckons not too far down the road. I used to think that it would be rather cool to be able to say that I had spent 25 years at my current practice, but I don't think I have 5 more years electronic charting in me. It has, unfortunately, taken much of the fun out of my job.