https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2821565
Updated for August of 2024, Drs. Jane Fogg, Christine Sinsky, Jill Jin and I collaborated on our respective organizations’ efforts at Inbox reduction and collated our methods into one best-practices guide.
I love the AMA approach with a step-by-step guide for organizations getting into this work. Committee structure, which leaders to involve, how to tackle each specific method. There are 8 easy steps here, take any one of them, to make a significant dent in the Inbox universe and reduce the burden of this important work.
A preview:
- Develop an EHR Inbox Task Force
- Measure Your Current State Using Audit Log Data
- Adopt a Strategic Framework: Eliminate, Automate, Delegate, Collaborate
- Begin With a “Great Purge”
- Eliminate Low-Value and Preventable Messages
- Automate Protocols and Pathways for Routine Tasks
- Delegate Message Handling to Upskilled and Empowered Team Members
- Collaborate to Fully Cover the Inbox During Physician Time Off
CMIO’s take: Are you doing this work? Are you doing something not described here? Have you recently had some success? This is too big and too important not to work together. Let me know!
