In the last segment of our provider enablement blog series: We investigated some of the pressures care teams are facing that make provider enablement strategies so critical. Now we’re exploring how the addition of specialized support roles like scribes, medical assistants, and AI tools can help support top-of-license work and why that’s so important.

The most effective and efficient team is the one in which every member is performing tasks that are at the top of their license or credentialing. A neurosurgeon is capable of greeting and welcoming patients, for example, but no one else is capable of successfully performing the surgical procedure. When a surgeon is performing surgery, they are working at the top of their license, or doing the work for which they are uniquely and most qualified.

Supporting top-of-license care requires an investment in care team design, leveraging roles like scribes, medical assistants, patient advocates, and other healthcare support roles to tackle work that may waylay others. These additions to the team allow everyone to contribute to patient care in the most efficient way. 

It is often administrative and basic, light clinical work that holds team members back from working top-of-license. Billing and patient care can be delayed waiting for providers to finish completing charts for encounters that happened hours or even days ago. Meanwhile, the provider has seen another dozen patients, making it increasingly difficult for them to recall key details necessary for charting. This is also true of nurses doing routine patient intake items like vital sign reading and gathering patient background. That’s why strategic care team design includes adding team members who are focused exclusively on administrative or light clinical work. 

Care team support roles can tackle tasks like:

• Clinical note taking
• Prior authorizations
• Care-coordination calls
• Referral orders
• Consult orders
• Rooming Patients
• Taking Vital Signs
• Assisting providers during exams
• EHR-inbox management
• Chart scrubbing
• And more…

With top-of-license practice comes greater pride in the work that individuals do. Being caught up in smaller menial tasks can be demoralizing for team members, breeding resentment and frustration, all contributors to burnout. Allowing care team members to focus on the work they are passionate about (and if not passionate about, at least uniquely qualified to do) can help improve patient throughput, boost morale, increase patient access to care, and overall clinical efficiency. 

The next installment in our provider enablement series will explore how top-of-license work allows providers and other care team members to prioritize the point of care, which results in better patient outcomes, improved HEDIS scores, and more fulfilled staff.