Author: Marshall O. Zaslove, MD
Publisher: Jones and Bartlett Learning – 307 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
This is a very useful book for time-challenged physicians by Dr. Marshall O. Zaslove, who has conducted over 500 seminars on personal and professional productivity for major medical organizations. Among those are American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the International College of Surgeons and Kaiser Permanente.
The purpose of this book is to help doctors become more productive streamlining, modernization and improvement in efficiency. Part of that process means getting organized on a professional as well as a personal level, since each affects the other closely. It contains some 140 practical ways to reduce hassles, pressures, risks, urgencies and worries.
The productivity techniques laid out in this book to help doctors save time on non-essential chores and enable them to focus on the essential tasks of their practice were compiled by the author from doctors through many means. Among them are: emails, interviews, letters, phone calls and questionnaires.
Insight and detailed understanding of the problems doctors face on a day-to-day basis was gained from discussions in Dr. Zaslove’s seminars on physician productivity. The author also spoke to medical technicians, nurses, office managers, operating room personnel, pharmacists, physician assistants and others in the medical field.
Learning never stops, as has been said, and much can be learned by doctors about becoming more efficient simply by talking to other doctors. They simply have to ask what they do to save effort and time and get more done each day, points out Dr. Zaslove in this valuable guide for harried physicians.
He expresses his sincere thanks in this book to the many people he has come across in his life for contributing to the material he has compiled, and shares with his readers. Given their urgent priorities and the long hours of work required to stay current on their patients, no doctor can afford to take months off to gather the kind of information available in this book.
The contents of this book are organized in good enough detail that the typically busy medical practitioner can get to a particular heading in a chapter quickly and read up on what he is looking for. To get the doctor started on the path to greater productivity, the author presents a 25-point self-diagnostic quiz at the end of the first chapter.
This quiz has questions (with a simple Yes or No response required) such as: “My practice just isn’t much fun anymore,” to “Part of my day is spent on garbage” to “It’s hard to locate papers, etc in my own office” to “I can’t keep up with new knowledge in my field” to “I’m too rushed to listen to my patients’ stories” Sound familiar to you? Find out what your score comes to, by getting the book and taking the quiz. Then do what the book tells you to do, to raise your productivity level.
This book is organized in four parts. The first part contains two chapters that answer in detail the question: “How Can Physicians Become More Productive?” Parts 2, 3 and 4 deal respectively with time management, knowledge management and relationship management for physicians.
Among the most interesting (and I believe useful, though I am not a doctor) chapters are chapters 4 and 5 (on time management): “How to Eliminate Time-wasting Habits” and “How to Cut Paperwork, Phone Calls and Procrastination.” On knowledge management, chapter 8 can help doctors clear up their doubts on their knowledge gaps: “How to Get Rid of Your Journal Pile.” And on relationship management, chapter 12 is a useful one: “The Hidden Secret of Physician Productivity.”
Dr. Zaslove writes that his book is not a magic bullet to all the challenges, difficulties and obstacles a doctor faces on a professional or personal level. But when he or she starts making changes in thinking, and starts taking action, one by one, on the suggestions presented in this book, improvement takes place.
As more and more of the points made in this book are taken heed of, doctors see incremental change, and they will reach a stage when they are spending less time unproductively. As Dr. Zaslove writes:
“This book has offered you over 140 ideas for moving in the direction of a more efficient and productive practice, and you’ll have hundreds of better ones yourself. Keep thinking for yourself, start putting your good ideas to work in your practice tomorrow, and things will get gradually get better for you…and for everyone.”
This book by Dr. Marshall Zaslove is written in language that can be understood even by non-doctors. It has over 140 down-to-earth practical ideas to help physicians become more efficient, more productive and happier about their work.
