A big chunk of healthcare professionals complain about the amount of time they spend on admin, and that figure is even higher among the self-employed healthcare professionals. 

Those healthcare workers have an even greater amount of admin tasks since, unlike regular employees, there’s no team behind them — and that often means that they spend a significant chunk of what should be their free time simply catching up with paperwork. That doesn’t just eat into their leisure time, but also contributes to elevated stress levels. 

Many professionals think that a mountain of paperwork is just the cost of being their own boss, but it doesn’t have to be that way. While you probably can’t get rid of admin duties, there are strategies that can significantly reduce admin time. We’ve rounded up some of the best below, which, when all put together, should make a noticeable difference to how much time you spend on admin-related tasks.

Figure Out Where Your Time Is Going

Many healthcare professionals simply assume that spending a big percentage of their week on admin tasks is normal, but if you were to take a closer look, you might be surprised to learn that you’re spending much more time on some tasks than you should. For instance, many self-employed healthcare professionals spend many more hours chasing payments than they thought. 

It’s much easier to fix a problem when you know what it is. Track how you’re spending your time for a week, and see which tasks are taking up the most energy. Once you know what it is, you can get to work on finding a solution. 

Simplify Taxes and Financial Tracking 

Healthcare professionals tend to have a more complicated tax position than other worker types, and that can make juggling finances and taxes even more challenging. For healthcare workers who are disorganised or using outdated methods, managing virtually anything finance-related can be headache-inducing, and that’s especially true when it comes to reporting tax. With MTD for self assessment being rolled out, it’s even more pressing that healthcare professionals get their financial ducks in a row. The good news is that there are tools that can make managing this aspect of your operations a lot more straightforward. Indeed, with the right platform, healthcare professionals may find that the amount of time they’re spending tracking their finances and organising their taxes is significantly reduced. 

Outsource Certain Tasks

Many self-employed healthcare professionals have the view that all jobs should fall on their shoulders, but that does not need to be the case, and it shouldn’t be. Taking care of everything is a fast track towards burnout and is also entirely unnecessary. It couldn’t be easier to outsource certain jobs to third-party companies/individuals, such as medical secretary tasks, appointment scheduling, and inbox management. There’s a cost to these services, but the maths usually makes it pretty obvious that it’s the way to go — if it costs a lot less than what you earn per hour, then it’s a good way to get a task off your plate and spend more time actually making money.