Medicine Is Losing Its Soul to Documentation. Can We Get It Back?
Midway through a busy clinic day, Dr. Jeff Margolis, a practicing medical oncologist in Royal Oak, Michigan, and president of Michigan Health Professionals, the largest private practice in the state with nearly 500 physicians, shares a candid reflection on modern medicine. In a recent testimonial for an AI-powered clinical documentation solution, Dr. Jeff Margolis is asked, ‘How do you keep your head on straight?’ He responds candidly:
“Sometimes I don’t know. But the difference between me and a lot of administrators is I’m actually seeing patients every day.”
This highlights a core challenge in today’s healthcare: while many administrators are mired in paperwork, dedicated clinicians like Dr. Margolis continue to focus on patient care. Yet even the most committed physicians find that the shift from paper charts to electronic health records (EHRs) has not been entirely beneficial. With endless tick boxes, template fields, and mouse clicks, the very soul of medicine risks being lost in a labyrinth of administrative tasks (BlueHive, 2024).
Unfortunately, Dr. Margolis isn’t alone. The modern healthcare system forces countless providers to spend more time staring at electronic charts than engaging directly with patients. Recent studies by the American Medical Association (Sinsky et al., 2016), Mayo Clinic (Shanafelt et al., 2022), and others illustrate the scope of the problem:
- For every hour spent with a patient, physicians dedicate nearly two additional hours to documentation. In a detailed time-and-motion study led by Dr. Christine Sinsky, researchers found that EHR tasks and desk work frequently overshadow face-to-face interactions, underscoring the unsustainable nature of current documentation demands.
- 63% of physicians report burnout, citing emotional exhaustion and detachment from their work; a figure that reflects a significant rise over the years and points to escalating psychological stress in healthcare.
- Administrative burden is the second-leading cause of physician burnout, with bureaucratic tasks and documentation overload fueling chronic fatigue and disconnection from patient care.
- With annual expenditures on administrative complexity estimated at $286 billion (Shrank et al., 2019), this financial drain diverts vital resources away from patient-facing activities and exacerbates systemic inefficiencies.
And while countless “fixes” have been proposed, many only add new layers of complexity.
The “Fixes” That Are Making the Problem Worse
EHRs: A Necessary Tool That Became a Burden
When Electronic Health Records (EHRs) first arrived, they promised a new era of clarity and accuracy: goodbye, illegible handwriting and missing charts. Yet for Dr. Margolis, who remembers the transition from paper charts, it felt like a giant step backward:
“On paper charts, I could look a patient in the eye, talk with them, and just jot down occasional notes. I was a doctor first, and the chart came second.
With EMRs, it became clear that the EMR had to be taken care of first, and sometimes the patient felt secondary. ”
Statistics confirm his frustration:
- Primary care physicians devote about half of their workday, 5.9 hours out of 11.4, to EHR-related tasks, leaving less time for face-to-face patient interactions (Arndt et al., 2017).
- Emergency physicians in a community hospital logged roughly 4,000 mouse clicks per shift just to complete EHR documentation tasks, illustrating the time-intensive nature of current systems (Hill et al., 2013).
Cultural Reflections on the Documentation Crisis
Recall a time when a doctor’s note was a testament to empathy and human connection? Now it often resembles a “bloated ransom note” engineered to meet bureaucratic demands (ZDoggMD, 2015). Influential voice and veteran clinician, ZDoggMD – whose commentary on the EHR crisis has resonated widely – reminds us that technology should unite us, not shackle us with endless checkboxes. The stark reality is that modern documentation systems have stripped physicians of their role as caregivers, exacting a heavy toll on patient outcomes, financial stability, and the professional spirit of the field. Burnout is often cited as a symptom, yet beneath that label lies a profound moral injury that erodes the very ethics that compelled physicians to dedicate their lives to healing (ZDoggMD, 2019).
Scribes and Dictation: A Band-Aid, Not a Cure
To offset the burden, many providers turn to medical scribes or voice dictation software. While these can temporarily ease some burdens, they bring their own headaches. Scribes must be hired and trained, dictation often requires heavy edits, and neither addresses the root cause of documentation overload.
The Real Cost: Patient Satisfaction, Revenue Loss, and Burnout
As documentation demands pile up, the consequences can be severe. Wrestling with EHRs undermines the core mission of healthcare: to heal. The ripple effects are far-reaching:
- Medical errors are recognized as the third leading cause of death in the United States, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer (Makary & Daniel, 2016). In a system flooded with overlapping tabs, dropdowns, and multiple logins, critical lab results or medication changes can be overlooked. This fragmented documentation environment can delay diagnoses, complicate care coordination, and in the worst cases, contribute to adverse patient events.
- Complex billing and coding errors can lead to major financial losses, as small mistakes like missing codes or incomplete entries can ripple into denied claims and reduced reimbursements. According to a recent scoping review, AI has the potential to streamline health financing and minimize administrative pitfalls by better handling massive data sets (Ramezani et al., 2023), ultimately boosting financial stability for hospitals and private practices alike.
- Face-to-face interaction diminishes when physicians focus heavily on screen-based tasks, relegating patient engagement to a secondary role (Honavar, 2020). Studies show that when patients feel their doctor is distracted or rushed, they rate their care experience lower. Eye contact, personal conversation, and the overall “human touch” often wane when providers are tied to EHR documentation, eroding bedside rapport and potentially undermining trust, communication, and clinical outcomes.
For Dr. Margolis, the real benefit of reducing documentation is clear: it allows him to reconnect with his patients. He shares that BlueHive AI [Ozwell] has enabled him to ‘just look at the patient, talk, and be a doctor,’ illustrating how even modest gains in efficiency can restore the essential human connection at the heart of healthcare. This shift is crucial for boosting patient satisfaction, as meaningful interaction remains a pillar in the foundation of quality care.
From Burden to Breakthrough: AI’s Role in Healthcare
For years, artificial intelligence in healthcare was considered a lofty, futuristic concept- promising, yet not ready for prime time. That conversation has changed. AI is already delivering real, measurable results:
- In a large retrospective study of nearly 30,000 outpatient visits in ophthalmology, the use of scribes reduced physicians’ total documentation time from 7.6 minutes per note to 4.7 minutes- an overall decrease of nearly 38% (Dusek et al., 2021).
- An AI-powered ICD-10 coding system was shown to raise coding accuracy from 83% to 92%. This boost in accuracy means that mistakes in billing are likely to drop and healthcare providers can more easily meet regulatory standards (Chen et al., 2021).
- In an ambulatory urology practice, the introduction of medical scribes led to higher patient satisfaction scores; patients felt they received more focused and personalized care when physicians were less distracted by documentation tasks (Koshy et al., 2010).
A “Game Changer” for Dr. Margolis
After just two weeks of using BlueHive AI [Ozwell], Dr. Margolis sums up the impact in one word: “liberating.”
“It was the first time it felt like we got it right. I could stop staring at the monitor and just be a doctor. BlueHive did the documentation part for me.”
“Most of us who switched gained an hour or two hours back of our day. It has just been remarkable how much it’s improved our patient care and allowed us to go back to being doctors.”
Built to Work With You, Not Against You
Adopting new technology often comes with a major concern: workflow disruption.
Healthcare organizations can’t afford to rip out their current systems or retrain entire teams overnight, which is why Ozwell is designed to enhance, not replace, existing workflows.
Like an extra set of capable hands working in the background, Ozwell effortlessly manages documentation tasks, ensuring providers can focus on patients – not paperwork.
Ozwell is seamless and adaptable:
- Works with existing health systems including Enterprise Health, WebChart & BlueHive as part of a larger ecosystem.
- Capability to expand to other systems with flexible interoperability.
- Operable as a standalone AI-powered assistant for those without an EHR or EMR.
Because the solution to documentation overload isn’t just to use another system, it’s a smarter way to use the ones we already have.
Final Thoughts: AI Is the Way Forward
In today’s healthcare landscape, where physician shortages and administrative burdens drive burnout, the answer isn’t to simply demand more effort, it’s to embrace smarter solutions. AI offers the means to reclaim the most valuable resource in medicine: time. Time that can be redirected from what feels like endless paperwork to meaningful patient care. Dr. Jeff Margolis’s testimonial underscores this shift, as he describes how AI has given him the ability to refocus on what truly matters.
The bottom line: AI isn’t a replacement for physicians – it’s a restoration of their purpose. Let them practice medicine, not data entry.
References
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