About this Research Topic
Across the world, urology practice has continued to evolve. Some of these changes have led to increasing levels of provider burnout and decreasing job satisfaction. Reasons for these shifts are myriad and at least partly due to: 1) increasing regulatory and administrative burdens which generate meaningless work, 2) electronic medical record systems with poor usability, 3) loss of autonomy in practice, and 4) workforce shortages. In addition, urology providers often find themselves peforming low-level tasks in addition to high level clinical activity. While professional societies and policymakers work toward systemic change, clinical urologists can modify their clinic workflows to improve day-to-day practice. Addressing these challenges requires intentionality, creative problem solving, and strategy-sharing.
The scope of this research topic is broad and includes any system, technology, quality improvement and/or process improvement strategy that improves physician efficiency within a urology practice. The goals of improving clinical efficiency are both patient-centered and physician-centered. A more efficient practice can increase patient throughput and thereby improve patient access to urologic care. In addition, these changes allow the urologist to focus on urology and can help struggling clinicians recapture the joy in work.
The following themes will be explored:
- Clinic workflows and resource utilization
- Team-based care and effective delegation
- Time and task management strategies
- Process improvement for clinic efficiency
- Harnessing the electronic medical record
- Leveraging current technologies and telehealth
- Emerging technologies and future directions
The scope of this research topic is broad and includes any system, technology, quality improvement and/or process improvement strategy that improves physician efficiency within a urology practice. The goals of improving clinical efficiency are both patient-centered and physician-centered. A more efficient practice can increase patient throughput and thereby improve patient access to urologic care. In addition, these changes allow the urologist to focus on urology and can help struggling clinicians recapture the joy in work.
The following themes will be explored:
- Clinic workflows and resource utilization
- Team-based care and effective delegation
- Time and task management strategies
- Process improvement for clinic efficiency
- Harnessing the electronic medical record
- Leveraging current technologies and telehealth
- Emerging technologies and future directions
Keywords: Urology, clinic efficiency, urologic care, patient care
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
