Time Is Care: Making Every Minute Count in Clinical Practice

What we do with our time matters. Every minute counts, and there are many demands upon each one of them. This is, in my opinion, particularly the case in clinical practice, where complexity rises inexorably, expectations are high, and within all of that, the humility of how everything is distilled into the simple delivery of care for a fellow human being remains paramount – and is lost at our peril. 

With all of that in mind, the technology we employ to ensure that time is well spent is more important than ever before. Not just the counting of hours. But the counting of the quality of those hours. What I do as a clinician is so much more than simple attendance. It is teaching, training, and learning. Sharing knowledge. Working in teams. The caring that is planned. And the caring which is – and always will be – unplanned. The capture of all of that in a meaningful way; meaningful to me as a practitioner, to those to whom I am accountable, to my teammates and, fundamentally, to the patients I serve. 

That is what has driven us to think very carefully about how, as a leading provider of software solutions supporting safe and effective care delivery, we can do our very best to enable practitioners to make best use of their time in a way that is relevant and supportive. This is beyond simple planning and deployment; it is a more sophisticated and representative proposition.  

We know that accurately describing the planned delivery of clinical care is vitally important. Clearly the number, skills and availability of practitioners to fulfil the demands of service provision is fundamental to productive and high-quality healthcare. That relies upon accurate, accessible, and visible data to enable activity and capacity to be as finely balanced as possible. What is equally important is the interplay of that with professional development, supportive activities, academic interests, and related elements. And this is what it takes to enable careers to be enjoyable and rewarding. To then be able to take that information and deploy it into operational rostering, is the glue that binds what is expected to be done to what is actually done – as easily and consistently as possible. That is how safe care is enabled. 

Just as we plan and deliver, we take stock, reflect and appraise. Doing that well helps us to become happier, better, and more fulfilled clinicians. Providing technological solutions to support appraisal and professional development really matters. Doing that in a way that aligns to planning and service delivery takes that activity to the next level, reducing duplication, minimising bureaucracy, and meaning that more time is spent on developmental discussions rather than form filling. As I said, every minute counts. 

That is why I am extremely pleased and proud to share our new proposition that takes the very best of job planning, data capture, analytics and appraisal – and harmonises them into one, consolidated offer. Because clinical care is complicated, team working is ever more important; administrative obligations are unavoidable; reporting and governance essential. And through all of that, the expectations of our patients remain unchanged – and rightly so. They ask that we provide care that is safe, and they hope that we do this in practice because we have enjoyable and productive roles that are well supported and amply evidenced. To do that, we need the data that shows it, enabling planning that is sensible, responsive, and representative of all that it takes to be a skilled practitioner. Wrapped around that, we need the tools to develop, to improve, to assure. That is why we share with you our planning and appraisal solution. Because what we do with our time matters. 

Dr Darren Kilroy

Medical Director, RLDatix