By The Get Well Team
In today’s healthcare landscape, electronic health records (EHRs) have become indispensable tools for managing patient information. However, as useful as they are, EHRs also come with their own challenges, particularly when managing EHR inbox volume.
A recent study from the AMA showed that providers have seen a 157% increase in patient messaging since COVID.1
Clinical staff often find themselves inundated with messages related to appointment scheduling, test results, medication refills, and other patient-related questions and tasks. It is estimated that clinicians receive 70-75 new inbox notifications per day,2 creating a significant amount of additional work outside of clinical hours.
With inbox volumes reaching overwhelming levels, healthcare providers are facing a new form of digital burnout that could impact patient safety and job satisfaction.
To mitigate these issues, healthcare organizations must adopt innovative solutions that leverage technology to ease this “inbox overwhelm”. Combining patient education, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital patient engagement strategies, including virtual patient navigator services, can significantly reduce inbox volume for providers, enhancing both efficiency and patient care.
Strategies to Minimize Inbox Message Volume
Reducing the volume of inbox messages involves more than just technology; it requires a strategic approach to patient communication. Here are some ideas for minimizing inbox message volume:3
- Leverage Automation and AI to Reduce Inbox/Alert Fatigue
To address inbox/alert fatigue and enhance the efficiency of clinical workflows, healthcare organizations can turn to automation and AI. Automation can help streamline repetitive tasks, such as sorting and prioritizing messages. At the same time, AI can analyze message content to identify and flag urgent notifications, ensuring that critical information is not overlooked.
At Get Well, we offer advanced AI solutions that integrate into EHR systems to triage and prioritize patient messages. This allows clinicians to focus on the most urgent and important issues first.
- Extend Your Care Team’s Capacity with Virtual Navigators
Using patient navigators to intervene on behalf of the healthcare provider allows patients to receive human support to resolve administrative and non-clinical issues. Get Well Navigators extend the capacity of clinical staff, without adding staff headcount, by assisting patients with various aspects of their healthcare journey.
These navigators can provide real-time support and guidance, answer common questions, provide resources, and facilitate appointment scheduling. By addressing patient needs directly, we can reduce the number of messages that end up in the clinician’s inbox, freeing up valuable time for healthcare providers to focus on direct patient care.
- Design Inboxes with the Clinician in Mind
To effectively minimize inbox volume and enhance clinician productivity, it’s crucial that EHR providers design inboxes that are human-centric, prioritizing ease of use and streamlining workflows. For example, reducing the number of clicks and steps required to address inbox notifications can significantly cut down on time spent managing inbound patient communications. By designing interfaces that allow clinicians to take immediate action on messages directly from the inbox, healthcare organizations can ensure that routine tasks are handled more efficiently.
- Implement Workflow Changes That Proactively Reduce Inbox Volume
Streamlining workflows is essential for reducing inbox volume and enhancing clinician efficiency. For example, set up protocols that automate prescription renewals without needing physician review for every instance or direct “normal” test results to patients, bypassing the clinician’s inbox. Another approach is to conduct lab tests before appointments to enable discussion during the visit and reduce the need for follow-up messages.
- Schedule Dedicated Time for Inbox Management
Providing dedicated time during the workday for clinicians to manage inbox messages can prevent after-hours work, helping maintain a healthy work-life balance and reducing burnout.4
By embracing innovative technologies like automation and AI, healthcare organizations can reduce the administrative burden on clinicians and allow them to focus on what they do best—caring for patients.
As healthcare continues to evolve, inbox management is just one part of a broader transformation in how care is delivered. These solutions aren’t just about efficiency; they’re shaping a future where technology works seamlessly alongside clinicians to improve outcomes, reduce burnout, and create a more sustainable, patient-centered model of care. By adopting these strategies today, healthcare organizations are future-proofing systems to meet the demands of tomorrow.
To learn more about how Get Well’s AI and Navigator services can help your organization manage patient messaging more effectively, contact us today.
- https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-using-patient-portal ↩︎
- https://www.bcm.edu/news/strategies-to-reduce-ehr-overload ↩︎
- https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/9-steps-reduce-ehr-inbox-and-stress-system-level ↩︎
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6712240/ ↩︎
