The weight of administrative bureaucracy who weighs every day on the doctors impacts the time and well -being of professionals, generating inefficiencies and avoidable costsand can compromise the quality of the relationship with the patient. All this, it must be said. Without without affecting the quality of the care.
To give the situation on the situation is the national investigation “Oncology and the Administrative Burden: An Italian Survey “from which a really worrying figure comes out. About 40% of the working time of oncologists is absorbed today by administrative tasks. While research and therapeutic discoveries advance as never happened in the last fifty years, the amount of bureaucratic tasks that slows down clinical activity is growing in parallel. Promoted by Isheo, the Aladdin-Ets and Cipomo lamp, the investigation involved about 200 oncologists. The results were presented in Florence, during the XXIX National Congress of the Cipomo.
The complexity of work
The profile of the survey participants tells one solid and highly qualified category: the average age stands on 48.9 yearswith a balanced distribution between the different hospital contexts. Almost six out of ten oncologists operate in units with ordinary hospital beds, a sign of an intense and continuous care activity.
“The type of an oncologist does not end in the diagnosis and therapy. Among the clinical activities there are also participation in multidisciplinary teams, continuous training, research activity and the presence of scientific conferences. A framework that testifies to the global commitment required to those who deal with oncological diseases”
explains Luisa Fioretto, president of the Cipomo and Director of AUSL Toscana Centro Oncological Department.
Alongside these tasks with high clinical value, the time spent in administrative activities grows, often far from the primary care mission:
- the forms (requests to the hospital pharmacy, to the regional and national authorities), considered burdensome by 79% of oncologists
- the management of IT failures (61%)
- The compilation and management of clinical data (56%).
Where it weighs more and what could be delegated
“All these activities that together with many others could be delegated, today impact mainly on clinical activity and time of relationship with the patient. 62.5 % of oncologists take more time for communication with the patient, also in the light of his ever greater awareness and participation in therapeutic choices”
adds Davide Petruzzelli, author of the study, Oncology Patient Advocate and President of La Lampa by Aladdin Ets.
“The care relationship, the one that gives meaning to medical work, comes out weakened. Yet a significant part of this burden could be transferred to administrative or technical personnel. A practicable intervention, which would return time to the clinic and would improve the overall effectiveness of the system, allowing the doctor to fully devote himself to his role. Above all, to be able to do it at the scheduled times, without being forced to accumulate hours of extraordinary”
MONICA Giordano, Cipomo secretary and director of the Complex Structure of Oncology at the Sant’Anna Hospital in Como, specifies.
The risk of burnout
The administrative weight is not limited to stealing precious hours: it also leaves its mark on the psychological health of oncologists.
“The continuous stress and the subtraction of meaning from their business feed the burnout risk. This is the internationally recognized professional exhaustion syndrome (ICD-11), defined as a combination of energy exhaustion, emotional detachment from work and loss of personal efficacy. An alarm bell that cannot be ignored “
Rosarita Silva, President of the Congress and Treasurer Cipomo underlines, as well as director of medical oncology at the Fabriano (AN) hospital.
In a sector such as oncology with a high psychosocial impact, the attention to the quality of the working experience of collaborators takes on a strategic character.
“The well -being of our patients also passes through the well -being of our professionals and administrative burden is a problem that concerns the entire health system also in terms of appropriateness of use of the different professional profiles, generating further avoidable costs. Delegate, reorganize, simplify processes is today an essential necessity to support the oncology of the future”
concludes Dr. Fioretto.
