Stop physician burnout - the hidden danger of AI note-writing software

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Note writing AI will provide massive short-term relief to stressed-out physicians.

This technology can disconnect the detail and quality of your notes from your personal data entry skills. It will get you home sooner and eliminate pajama time.

Unfortunately, after a short break from the stress of documentation, things will only get worse.

After the A.I. implementation, your employer will make an inevitable change to your work flow that will change burnout forever. 


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The burden of EMR and digital documentation

The first EMR software was implemented in the early 2000s. The shift to digital documentation was a disaster for physician well-being.

This new documentation burden increased physician burnout rates by 20% over night. Since then, every study has found EMR to be the #1 cause of physician burnout.

EMR destroyed the physician-patient relationship and doctors' quality of life.

  • Studies have even shown that doctors spend twice as much time in the chart as they do face to face with patients!

  • Many physicians complete charts at home after putting the kids to bed. This has led to the new term, "pajama time.""

 

The AI breakthrough.

AI produces outstanding physician visit notes with remarkable consistency.

How can it do this? It has been trained by digesting millions of chart notes produced by physicians in your specialty.

Load the software onto your cell phone and your desktop. Tell it your specialty and whether you'd like a SOAP note or an H&P.

Push the RECORD button on your cell phone and it listens to your patient visit.

It can then write a note like the one you would type. The output is a true chart note. Not a transcript of your conversation. All you have to do differently is speak your physical findings.

We've had coaching clients brought to tears. Their chart note appeared, magically, in the time it took to walk from the exam room to their office. There it is. On the computer screen. Needing only a touch here and there to be final.

The first research has recently been reported. This software can decrease your “total time in the chart” by up to 50%".

Imagine that.

  • Imagine the software writes your notes, with acceptable quality, in half the time you're taking now. What would that feel like?

  • What would it feel like to leave the office 20 minutes after your last patient?

  • What would it feel like to never have to do charts at home again?

 

It's a true breakthrough. I encourage you to be an early adopter here.

If your organization is starting an AI note-taking pilot, join the study group and get started.

If your company is not implementing AI documentation, grab one of the publicly available programs and use it as a copy and paste alternative to typing your own notes.

Here are two our clients have recommended. NABLAScribeMD
[I have no financial relationship with these companies]

I foresee these programs achieving universal acceptance in a short time frame. They disconnect the quality of your notes from your personal data-entry skills.

Why will this burnout relief be only short-term?

Q: With half your documentation time freed up, how long until your employer raises your patient volume quotas?

When I ask this question to a live audience, the average answer is, “ten minutes."

In this new high-volume reality, we may look back on documentation burden as a blessing.

You don't see more patients now because you know the encounter isn't over until the paperwork is done. The prospect of more work in the chart stops you from banging out another four or five patients.

What happens when we remove that throttle on your patient flow? What happens when you're asked to see four, five … 10 more patients a shift?

What will become the new kingpin stressor that replaces the documentation burden?

All our clinical skills are exhaustible.

We already recognize compassion fatigue and decision fatigue in doctors.

Burnout comes from exhausting your physical, emotional, and spiritual energy reserves.

 

If we remove the simple task overload of charting, what deeper cognitive boundary will we violate with higher patient volumes?

How will burnout change in this new environment?

The implementation of AI note-writing software is inevitable.

Increases in patient visits and RVU quotas are inevitable.

Burnout will change as a result.

 

My fear is that burnout will morph into a new and more devastating dysregulation in the mind, body and soul of modern physicians.

 

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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Are you using this software?
How is it working for you?
Is your AI note writersorganization implementing AI note writing software?
Do you believe your organization will increase your production quotas like I describe above?

 

Tags: EMR, stop physician burnout, AI Notewriting software for doctors