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Due to the unprecedented, ongoing structural changes to the healthcare industry, physicians face pressures now unlike any other time. The bumpy road to value-based reimbursement, the demand to use EHRs and the constant cost-based scrutiny of care decisions has left many physicians demoralized and considering exiting medicine. In 2013, 40% of physicians reported that they had burnout. In 2015, that number was up to 46% of respondents, according to the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report survey. Since the 2013 survey, the top three reasons for physician burnout have remained constant: too many bureaucratic tasks, too many hours at work and insufficient income.

Dr. Naveen Kella is the founder of a general urology practice in San Antonio, TX. He employs a staff of six. When asked what has caused him to experience burnout, he laughs ruefully and asks, “Where do I start?”

Ever-increasing regulations under the Affordable Care Act – regulations like Meaningful Use that he believes are inefficient and ultimately a hindrance to patient care – have put demands on Kella’s time that have turned his chosen career as a physician into “a grind.” Kella says his reimbursements have gone down steadily every year as a result of what he calls the “constant cat-and-mouse game” with insurers.

“It comes down to balancing declining reimbursements with increasing bureaucracy requirements across all aspects of the practice,” Kella says. “It’s a beat down and eventually you’re like, well, I give up.”

The implications of physician burnout go further than just the individual physician. In communities that rely on independent physicians for primary care, the removal of a doctor from a local care network can have a negative impact on patient care and local population health – especially in states that rely on extensive physician practice networks. The Texas Medical Association alone, for example, represents 48,000 independent practitioners.

For Kella and other physicians, however, technological solutions can help mitigate the challenges that cause burnout and support private practice. ElationEMR, an EHR company based in San Francisco, CA, is one such vendor that has developed a “clinical-first” technology to help physicians increase practice productivity without curtailing patient care.

“There’s no trend I can see where we could decrease our costs except by harnessing technology more,” Kella said. Kella credits his current EHR, ElationEMR, with cutting down on the number of hours required for administrative and billing tasks. Without it, he says, he would likely have to hire another staff member. Easy-to-use workflows, quick retrieval of data and the ability to instantly perform tasks like sending a prescription to a pharmacy are key, Kella says, because they cut down on wasted time – which is critical given the number of patients Kella says he now has to see to remain afloat.

Dr. Priscilla Natanson, who also uses ElationEMR, agrees. Natanson has a busy naturopathic medical practice in Seattle, WA. Without this technology, Natanson said, she would have had to significantly cut back on her hours spent seeing patients. Because of the implementation of efficient technology, Natanson isn’t cranky and tired when she gets home – and she gets home at a reasonable hour. Not to mention what it’s done for her revenue stream:

“[Superior technology solutions] completely changed my cashflow,” Natanson said. “Now instead of spending one day a week where I’m coding and sending things in, I’m sending things in multiple times a day so my cashflow is steadier.”

Natanson doesn’t employ a coder, and previously she had to set aside an entire day to complete that paperwork. With her EHR, coding is finished as patients are walking out of her door. “I’m now taking that day and seeing patients,” Natanson says. “What a concept.”

“It sounds silly to say about an EHR,” Natanson says, “but it has completely changed my life.”



ElationEMR delivers a new standard for healthcare with a revolutionary, clinically-centered platform for frontline physicians. Through the company’s “Clinical First” philosophy, Elation brings the right information, at the right time, to the true change agent in care delivery: the physician.

Intuitively designed to reflect how the healthcare system actually works, Elation creates trusted clinical tools that bring patients and their physicians closer together, that make physicians more productive and effective, and that allow patients’ critical health information to follow them throughout the healthcare system. ElationEMR is a single coherent platform enabling physicians to manage all aspects of patient care in one place.