HealthJanuary 30, 2024

Three clinical information challenges for care teams

With access to the right clinical decision support (CDS) solution, clinicians can address key healthcare professional challenges and improve patient outcomes.

Clinicians continue to have more tasks and work placed on their shoulders, with less time to care for their patients. Without the right tools at their disposal, care teams face key challenges that can impact productivity, costs, and patient outcomes.

1. Lack of clarity on the latest clinical recommendations

Medical research is updating and expanding at an increasingly rapid rate. A landmark 2011 study showed how the rate for doubling medical knowledge expanded exponentially – from 50 years in 1950 to just 73 days by 2020. A 2022 survey of over 600 physicians found that 95% expressed interest in learning about new procedures and treatments, but 70% felt overwhelmed by the amount of information available.

The challenge of staying updated with the latest medical knowledge, procedures, and recommendations is daunting. Clinicians need access to technologies and information resources to confidently make the best possible patient care decisions, even when the evidence isn’t fully clear.

2. Burnout continues, with less time to make care decisions

With the many demands placed on them, clinicians are burning out and don’t have time to search for answers. A 2023 Medscape report showed 53% of US physicians said they’re burned out, with too many bureaucratic tasks as the top contributor. A 2022 survey of primary care physicians in 10 high-income countries showed 90% felt they spent too much time on administrative work. Healthcare and IT leaders need to identify solutions that will fit within current workflows, alleviate administrative burdens, and help clinicians focus on tending to and treating their patients instead of searching for answers.

3. Care teams are siloed with inefficient workflows

When clinical teams aren’t aligned and communicating, care delivery and costs can add up. A 2018 study found communication inefficiencies among care teams in US hospitals result in over $12 billion in annual wasted costs. In England, a poll of the public and NHS staff showed one in 10 saying their care had been affected as a result of poor communication from the health service.

While there are numerous ways to improve communication, one way is by getting all clinicians onto the same standardized resource for clinical decision making, within the current workflow. Care teams that refer to the same source of evidence can have aligned decision-making for their patients, improving outcomes and reducing variation in care.

Improving outcomes with the right clinical decision support solution

Access to the right evidence-based solutions can help clinicians and healthcare leaders address these challenges. Over 100 studies demonstrate how clinical decision support (CDS) from UpToDate® improves outcomes and clinical processes, and helps clinicians around the world provide better patient care. When trusted clinical content is available within the workflow and accessible at the point of care, clinicians can spend less time searching for answers and more time with their patients.

Download the infographic to see the four key reasons why over 2 million clinicians around the world choose UpToDate for their clinical decision support solution.

 

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