How Much Time Does AI Save Doctors? 15,000 Hours According to Research
There’s no more denying that artificial intelligence is part of our daily lives. People use AI for just about anything these days, from writing articles to creating videos. In the healthcare industry, we see many advances with AI and machine learning, too. For doctors, one of the most important benefits that comes from the implementation of AI tools is to save time. However, the question remains: how much time does AI save doctors?
Recent studies suggest that AI scribes, in particular, could save doctors thousands of hours. In this post, we're taking a closer look at what research says, and giving you an idea of how much time AI can truly save.
What are AI Scribes and How Do They Save Time?
The term “AI scribe” has been trending lately, but what exactly are these tools? How do they work? And how do they benefit doctors, specialists, and other healthcare professionals?
An AI Scribe is software that can transcribe audio at a surface level. However, in the medical industry, these scribes do much more. They allow doctors to record their consultation with a patient, and in turn, get the entire session summarized into a structured SOAP note.
With DoctorIQ, the process of scribing doctor consultations is taken to the next level. The system was designed to provide a comprehensive patient management system. Each patient has their own profile, and doctors can easily open their file, start the visit, and even choose which SOAP note template the system should use.
Studies have shown that documentation takes up a significant amount of time among physicians. A research paper by S. Woolhandler and D.U. Himmelstein revealed that the average physician spends as much as 8.7 hours every week on paperwork. Patient charging and documentation take a lot of time, and this is where AI scribes come into the picture.
When doctors implement an AI scribe in their practice, the process of documenting patient encounters becomes automatic. This means the doctor no longer has to spend hours on documentation and paperwork, freeing up their time.
How Much Time Does AI Really Save?
As more physicians turn to AI in their practice, researchers have started to look into documenting the actual benefits. One particularly interesting finding comes from the American Medical Association. Researchers specifically focused on seeing how much time AI could save doctors.
Research on this topic actually started in 2023. Between the starting date of the study and now, more than 2.5 million encounters with patients have been recorded.
When details were carefully analyzed for this time period, the researchers came to the conclusion that AI scribes saved these doctors a collective 15,791 hours by reducing the need for documentation.
In another report by the American Medical Association, researchers also wanted to get the data down to daily time savings. They found that AI scribes can save doctors at least an hour every day by automating the documentation process.
What Does Reduced Documentation Mean For Doctors?
Now that we’ve established AI scribes can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes doctors to document their encounters with patients, there’s another important question we should address. When doctors have this free time on their hands, what does it mean for both the physician and the patient?
First, it’s important to note that the time-saving features of these AI scribes can actually have a positive impact on waiting times. When a patient has an appointment with a doctor, they often have to sit in the waiting room. After the doctor finishes with a patient, they need to do paperwork. They have to document the patient’s visit. When the doctor doesn’t have to do all of this manually, it means they can see the next patient faster.
Doctors with more time on their hands can also deliver better care to patients. They can shift their full attention to medicine and patient care, without constantly having to worry about documentation and administrative work.
The benefits reach the physician as well. Physician burnout is a major problem around the globe. A recent report by Stanford revealed that almost 50% of US doctors experience one or more symptoms associated with burnout. In some areas, the statistics are even higher. Research shows that about 57.7% of Nigerian physicians experience burnout.
When physicians experience burnout, it can affect their performance or result in downtime. AI scribes ease many of the processes a doctor has to go through, which also means the software provides a positive impact on the risk of burnout.
Conclusion
As AI becomes more integrated into the medical industry, we’re seeing new ways in which the tech helps physicians. Artificial intelligence scribes are now considered an important aspect by many doctors, as they help to save time, reduce the risk of clinical errors, and provide a faster way to create SOAP notes. Research has already backed up these claims, showing that doctors can save thousands of hours.
