Change It Up

This is an invitation to redesign your clinical day, and there's a special workshop coming up later this month if you want help redesigning your clinical day.

Over my (long) clinical medicine career I have done my fair share of shaking things up!

In Australia I had one consultation room that doubled as my office. In my early career, this would mean I was maxed out at 21 patients a day. By the time I got the patient from the waiting room to the room, undressed and dressed again and out the door we were pushed to see 21.

At that time I met a Family Physician who was using two consultation rooms (and making double my then income). I am sorry to report that at the time I thought she must be greedy and give her patients a rushed "factory" experience.

What I now realize is that she was clever, innovative and smart. Her patients got more of her undivided attention as they were settled in the room and ready for her to arrive, rather than my patients who were just catching their breath while I was trying to rush them into getting started!

The following year I moved to another clinic and got to experience a clinic that was more innovative and had invested in support staff to handle a lot more of the non physician work. I still had one room but was able to increase patient numbers.

The aim, however, is not to be able to see more patients, it is a demonstration that a change in the clinical day process creates different results.

The following year we decided to buy a new house, it was a gorgeous wood pole home in the Rainforest. It was truly my dream home.

It also came with a price. In order to afford it, as a sole income earner for my family, I needed to increase my productivity by 30%! 

Add to this, I also moved clinic again to my permanent clinic position (training years complete), this time I had access to two clinical spaces - the main office and the treatment room. I got a glimpse of what "two consultation rooms" looked like. I also evaluated my workflow and work types and optimized the management of my complex patients. This benefited my patients (unlocked access to physical therapy and other allied health visits) and was better remuneration for the time spent.

It was interesting that it took a financial nudge to help me "find the time" to improve my clinical day process.

Moving to Canada everything was different yet again.

Then in 2018 I decided that I was done with late finishes and wanted to leave the office at 5pm with everything done.

Then came the government changes to remuneration and we pivoted again. Then came Covid and virtual care and we pivoted again.

I have redesigned my clinical day over and over again. Building my clinical day resourcefulness muscle!

I now teach these skills to Family Physician Residents and Clinical Medicine Physicians.

Its fascinating how we can go decades stuck in the same pattern until we step back with intention.

To redesign your clinical day, we start with the goals you have and then question everything. It's a great process as there are infinite possibilities and we are not limited by the current clinical day - we add some imagination, creativity and community and you've got yourself a new game plan.

Are you excited to join us 🥳🥳

I have never taken this class outside of the Charting Champions Program before and there are no promises that I will run it again in the future.

This is your opportunity and I would love you to join us.  Stay tuned next week for more information and a chance to register for this workshop!

Have an amazing week and keep that imagination on 😁