From Burnout to Balance: How AI Scribe is Transforming Patient Care
“When I walk out the door, I am done,” Thomas says. “I’ve been a doctor since 1991 and that has never been the case.”
For Dr. Mary Thomas, implementing Autoscribe by Mutuo Health has significantly changed the way she interacts with her patients while reducing the administrative workload.
Participating in the Health Care Unburdened Grant, which supports the implementation and evaluation of AutoScribe, Dr. Thomas decided to enroll because of the common challenge most clinics in the GTA are facing: administrative burnout.
“My days were so packed. I’d always be staying late; I’d have to work from home. And it would just break me. It was just really, really hard,” she says.
Dr. Thomas provides care at several clinics, including Health Access, Danforth Health Access, and Flemington Health Centre, all situated in densely populated neighbourhoods with large immigrant populations. She describes her work as “different from the typical day-to-day of a family physician.”
“At my appointments, we cover a lot of ground because often these patients have a hard time getting to the clinic. I can't keep it at one problem, it’s more like eight problems that need to be addressed,” she says.
With the influx of patients and the time spent on charting, she saw immense value in automating that experience to focus more on her patients.
“I am 100 per cent focused on the patient. This is particularly important with people who don’t speak English as eye contact and gestures mean a lot,” she says.
Using the scribe technology has also helped break language barriers, as it can pick up on accents and type out names of medications that are not common in Canada.
“90 per cent of the chart looks good; I just add a few things in and it’s good to go,” she says. “Once I worked out the kinks, it seems to be really working for my practice and our population.”
“AI scribes are a game-changer for many clinicians who have struggled to run practices and maintain a healthy work-life balance while keeping up with modern clinical documentation requirements,” says Dr. Rajesh Girdhari, Digital Health Lead, Office of Health System Partnership at the Department of Family and Community Medicine. “In the not-too-distant future, AI scribes will be available to any interested clinician and well-integrated into the digital tools used by clinicians on a daily basis.”
After a few months of using the scribe technology, Dr. Thomas has successfully adjusted her workflow and intake process, even accommodating more appointments each day. “Because the post-appointment work is already done, I can squeeze in a couple of extra patients per day. It changed our workflow completely,” she adds.
The personal benefits of the AI scribe technology have been life changing for Dr. Thomas. “My day, when it's done, it's done. I'm out of there. Once the door closes, my emotional door is closed too,” she says. Leaving clinic on time and no charting at home has proven to be a major win for her wellbeing and burnout prevention.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM) Office of Health System Partnerships, together with health system partners, have been awarded the Health Care Unburdened Grant to support the implementation and evaluation of AutoScribe, a Canadian AI scribe technology for transcribing patient-clinician conversations in real time and enhancing medical record documentation.
Funding for this multi-partner initiative to implement AI scribe technology was made possible by the Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank as part of the Health Care Unburdened Grant.
