Improving Efficiency in Internal Medicine Practices with Smarter Tech
Internal medicine clinics are essential for adult patients. They focus on preventing illness, managing chronic conditions, and making sure care stays on track. But these clinics are under more pressure than ever. Staff are stretched thin trying to care for large numbers of patients, meet quality goals, and keep up with changes in healthcare – all while trying to avoid burnout and keep patients happy.
Let’s look at the biggest everyday challenges these clinics face and share ideas to make things run more smoothly.
Too Many Patients, Not Enough Time
Most internal medicine doctors have over 1,500 patients which means they’re responsible for a huge list of tasks: from yearly check-ups and vaccines to chronic condition follow-ups and lab tests. Keeping track of who needs what, like a diabetes screening or cancer check, is hard to do without a system in place.
Many clinics try to use reports from their EHRs or spreadsheets, but those take a lot of time and aren’t easy to act on. When patients fall through the cracks, clinics miss important care and risk falling short on quality scores – especially if they’re in value-based contracts.
Too Many Systems That Don’t Work Together
Internal medicine clinics often rely on several different tools: one for the EHR, one for scheduling, another for messaging, and maybe another for telehealth. The problem? These tools often don’t talk to each other.
Staff end up switching between systems, retyping the same information, and trying to track down updates. This wastes time, increases the chance for mistakes, and slows down care. Patients might miss follow-ups or never hear back on test results—all because the systems aren’t connected.
One internal medicine clinic leader said, “We’re juggling multiple systems: EHR, patient messaging, telehealth – it’s a mess.”
Follow-Up is Exhausting
Internal medicine clinics carry much of the weight when it comes to care coordination. Teams spend hours each day calling patients to confirm appointments, deliver test results, check in after hospital discharges, or follow up on chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or COPD. Front office staff and care managers alike often juggle multiple lists, just trying to make sure no one falls through the cracks.
But even with all that effort, the results can be discouraging. Patients may not answer calls, ignore voicemail messages, or forget what they were told. Others assume the clinic will call again if it’s important, or believe their specialist is handling next steps. And when follow-up depends on busy staff chasing patients down one at a time, it’s hard to keep up – especially when the volume of outreach grows with each new care gap or test result.
Internal medicine practices often serve patients with complex, ongoing needs, where continuity matters. A missed lab result follow-up or a delayed check-in after starting a new medication isn’t just an administrative miss. It can lead to worsened health outcomes. But with limited staff and disconnected systems, creating a reliable and scalable follow-up process is a real challenge.
Without a structured, repeatable way to stay in touch between visits, patients can quickly fall off the radar. This not only delays needed care – it can impact quality scores, increase unnecessary hospitalizations, and contribute to staff burnout from constantly trying to play catch-up. For many clinics, improving follow-up isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about ensuring patients actually get the care they need, when they need it.
Referrals That Go Nowhere
From abnormal lab results to new symptoms that require specialist evaluation, internal medicine providers are often the first point of contact for a wide range of health concerns. As a result, referrals to cardiology, endocrinology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and other specialties are a regular part of daily clinic operations.
But once that referral leaves the clinic, visibility often disappears. Did the patient ever call the specialist’s office? Did the appointment get scheduled? Was the visit completed, and if so, was any follow-up information shared back with the primary care team?
In many internal medicine clinics, tracking referrals is a manual, time-consuming process. Staff may enter notes in the EHR, send a fax, or make a few follow-up calls, but without a closed-loop process, it’s hard to know which patients followed through and which never made it to their appointment.
This referral leakage is a significant problem. Patients may forget to schedule, feel unsure about next steps, or hit delays due to insurance or prior authorization issues. Others may not realize how important the referral is or assume someone else is handling it.
And when referrals go untracked, it doesn’t just affect the patient’s care—it can reflect poorly on the clinic’s performance, especially in value-based care arrangements where outcomes and care coordination are closely measured. Missed specialist appointments can lead to gaps in diagnosis, delayed treatment, and preventable ER visits or hospital admissions.
Three Ideas to Try Today
Internal medicine clinics don’t need to replace all their tools to start seeing improvements. Here are three simple, high-impact changes that can help:
- Stay on top of care gaps: Set up regular outreach to patients who are overdue for checkups, screenings, or lab work. Automate as much as you can to save time.
- Consider one-to-many messaging: Luma’s Broadcast solution helps send messages at scale – and personalized to each patient. So whether you need to let folks know about a weather closure or remind them about due care gaps, it’s easy to communicate with patients.
- Follow up on referrals: Make it standard practice to check whether referred patients completed their appointments – and follow up if they didn’t.
Start Small, Make a Big Difference
Internal medicine clinics are doing tough, important work, and it’s not getting any easier. But by focusing on the biggest pain points and making some smart changes, clinic leaders can ease the load for staff and make sure patients get the care they need.
Running efficiently, staying connected with patients, and keeping things moving aren’t just nice to have anymore. They’re the foundation of good care and the key to success in today’s healthcare system.
Want to see how your internal medicine practice could benefit from smarter workflows and more connected patient experiences? Schedule a personalized demo with the Luma Health team to explore how our platform can help you streamline operations, reduce no-shows, and support your patients every step of the way.