From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians’ Roles

David B. Reuben; Christine A. Sinsky

doi:10.1370/afm.2203

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From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians' Roles
Robert S Watkins

Published on: 27 March 2018
Who does what work?
Lawrence G Smith

Published on: 21 March 2018

Published on: (27 March 2018)
Page navigation anchor for From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians' Roles
From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians' Roles
Robert S Watkins, Physician
I'm sorry, but telling overworked and underpaid family physicians to delegate administrative chores to other also overworked and underpaid members of the team is not a solution to anything. It's nothing more than a not very good work-around that only serves to perpetuate the underlying problem.
The ONLY solution is to end the unrealistic administrative demands that are placed on family physicians by CMS and in...
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I'm sorry, but telling overworked and underpaid family physicians to delegate administrative chores to other also overworked and underpaid members of the team is not a solution to anything. It's nothing more than a not very good work-around that only serves to perpetuate the underlying problem.
The ONLY solution is to end the unrealistic administrative demands that are placed on family physicians by CMS and insurers - demands that will only increase as QPP and "value-based" payments go into effect. Sadly, the AMA and AAFP have so far been more interested in ensuring that physicians comply with bad policies than with fighting to make things better.
Competing interests: None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.
Published on: (21 March 2018)
Page navigation anchor for Who does what work?
Who does what work?
Lawrence G Smith, Dean
Drs. Reuben and Sinsky address one of the epidemics afflicting today's Health Care, physician loss of joy, pride and satisfaction in the daily work of caring for patients. There are many contributing factors that have been discussed repeatedly. The importance of the paper is the simple, intuitive elegance of putting all tasks into only two buckets, Transactional Tasks done mostly by the team members and Personalized Car...
Show More

Drs. Reuben and Sinsky address one of the epidemics afflicting today's Health Care, physician loss of joy, pride and satisfaction in the daily work of caring for patients. There are many contributing factors that have been discussed repeatedly. The importance of the paper is the simple, intuitive elegance of putting all tasks into only two buckets, Transactional Tasks done mostly by the team members and Personalized Care done mostly by the physician.
This simple model allows assessment, planning and redesign of care at the micro system level to bring satisfaction and value to the physician's workday and delegated responsibility to the team members' roles. What goes in each basket will be debatable but this conceptual model offers a roadmap to satisfying work for all.
Competing interests: None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.