Burnout is a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. In the workplace, it can lead to carelessness and a sense of hopelessness which affects productivity and leads to higher turnover.
It’s something that has been an increasing problem in the healthcare profession over recent years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic where the burnout rate of healthcare professionals (including physicians, nurses, clinical and non-clinical staff) during 2020 was almost 50% (49.9%).
For nurses, this was over 56%, according to stats by the National Library of Medicine.
As an issue that’s currently so prominent in healthcare, what can employers put in place to reduce the number of burnt-out staff?
In our article, we’ll explore the role of technology and AI in healthcare, and how embracing it can help to avoid clinician burnout.
The effects of workplace burnout
Within the NHS, 79% of survey respondents said that they have experienced stress from their work, 62% have suffered from anxiety and 55% have experienced burnout.
Because of these problems, over half of those surveyed have taken time off work and almost 80% (78.5%) of NHS staff have considered quitting in the last three years – resulting in:
- Added pressure on departments.
- Loss of revenue – staff absence costs the healthcare service circa £2.4 billion each year.
- A risk to patients.
By embracing technology, we can look to support clinicians and prevent workplace burnout.
How speech recognition and digital dictation improves efficiency for healthcare professionals
The healthcare sector has relied heavily on traditional transcription services for years now. Audio files sent to admin staff… Who then send the files back to clinicians for clarifications… Who then amend and send back to admin staff… Who then complete the typing, format the documentation and then send back for approval…
A process that sounds all too familiar?
Let’s look at how speech recognition and workflow management solutions can transform the way your hospital or clinic do things:
Digital dictation is when you speak into a recording device and speech recognition is when the computer identifies and responds to human speech.
Some benefits of using speech recognition in healthcare:
- Decreases burden on administration teams – no more writing up client records and notes, the transcripts can be sent straight to secretaries to send records out. Chunks of text can be autogenerated and forms fields can be populated – all on voice command.
- Transcribes speech in real-time – speeding up the entire process from days to minutes/hours.
- Improves accuracy – traditional transcription services hold the risk of human error.
- Helps to reduce workplace burnout – accurate AI-driven technology such as speech recognition takes the heat off clinician admin, putting more hours back into their weekly schedule and reducing workloads.
G2 Speech’s solutions streamline workflows in the healthcare sector
Having worked with clinicians from various healthcare departments for over 25 years now, we know all too well how administrative tasks such as transcription can take their toll on workflows.
And since, we’ve continued developing our products – SpeechReport, Speech Cursor, G2 Analytics and G2 Mobile – to improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve workflow management for professionals across the globe.
SpeechReport is our enterprise speech platform (version 4 is coming soon – keep your eyes peeled!), powered by Recognosco’s speech technology.
It provides a fully automated workflow with speech recognition tech which streamlines the creation, adaptation and management of documentation in one central location.
Providing 98+% accuracy there’s very minimal tweaks needed!
Is the healthcare industry already embracing technology?
Although easily one of the most difficult times in healthcare, the Covid-19 pandemic can be thanked for catapulting the industry to be more tech-focused. Since then, we’ve seen more remote working, online and video consultations, video conferencing technology and online appointment booking.
All helping to save time, resources, clinician burnout and patient satisfaction.
But while more tech is weaving its way into clinician workflows every year, there’s still more that can be embraced to significantly improve workflows and improve those burnout stats.
Check out how our speech recognition solutions can modernise your hospital or clinic’s documentation process and consequently reduce burnout for clinicians and healthcare employees.