Recent data from 2024 shows that pediatricians in the United States work an average of 52.8 hours per week, slightly less than 54.3 hours the year before. Still, a large part of their time is spent on paperwork and indirect care rather than seeing patients. Doctors spend about 27.2 hours weekly on direct patient care, 13 hours on indirect care like documentation and entering orders, and around 7.3 hours on other administrative tasks. About 22.5% of physicians spend more than eight hours after work hours doing electronic health record (EHR) tasks. This after-hours work, sometimes called “pajama time,” is a big cause of burnout. Although burnout in doctors has dropped a little—with 43.2% showing symptoms in 2024 compared to 48.2% in 2023—it is still a major issue.
Having too much administrative work affects how well doctors feel, how much time they can spend with patients, and how smoothly pediatric clinics run. EHR systems are complex. Insurance paperwork, order entries, and detailed coding take a lot of time. This makes work harder for pediatric doctors.
Even though AI tools help, health organizations use other methods too. These methods help reduce paperwork and improve workflows.
More health systems use teams to share administrative and documentation tasks. For example, medical assistants may work as scribes or helpers during patient visits. Scribes write notes in real time so doctors can focus on patients instead of typing notes.
Sutter Health, for example, uses medical assistants to help doctors with documentation. They also teach doctors about time-based billing. This help lowers “note bloat,” which means writing too many or repeated notes that confuse documentation and billing.
The American Medical Association (AMA) made tools like the STEPS Forward® playbooks. These give clear steps to improve how clinics work and cut down on repeated EHR work. Some ideas include removing unnecessary tasks, adding pharmacists to teams to handle medication checks, and changing workflows to focus on key clinical tasks.
Using these playbooks, pediatric clinics can cut down on paperwork complexity and reduce burnout by letting doctors spend time on important notes and patient care.
Training doctors on how to write notes clearly without adding extra information is another way to reduce paperwork. Teaching about time-based billing, shorter note styles, and using templates helps keep notes clear and meets billing and legal rules.
Programs that raise awareness about note bloat teach how to avoid it. This training works well with technology and helps clinics run more smoothly.
Some health systems try shared inbox and message management programs. These programs help take care of some admin tasks while doctors are off work. Baptist Health Medical Group uses a team of doctors and nurse practitioners to handle inbox messages during vacations. This stops backlogs and lowers after-hours work.
This shared work method keeps communication going well. It lets pediatricians take breaks from admin tasks and helps their work-life balance, lowering burnout.
Ambient documentation means using technology that records and types notes during patient visits automatically. This cuts down on writing notes by hand.
The Permanente Medical Group uses AI scribes that listen and write notes in real time. This lowers keyboard time during and after visits. It helps doctors focus on patients without getting distracted. At the same time, this tech keeps records accurate and detailed.
But doing this well needs careful planning. The system must fit into the clinic’s workflow, be easy to use, and doctors must accept it. Good design and ongoing support are key to success.
Health informatics helps cut paperwork by making it easy to get and share clinical data. This speeds up decisions and cuts down on repeating data entry. It allows doctors, nurses, administrators, and insurance people to access records electronically.
Better sharing of data helps pediatric clinics avoid repeating tasks and errors from incomplete information. Health informatics experts use data analysis and decision support tools to improve the quality and speed of care for children.
AI has proved helpful in supporting pediatric healthcare with paperwork and admin jobs. Many health systems in the U.S. have reported successful uses that show clear benefits.
Texas Children’s Pediatrics: This system ran an AI documentation pilot for over 250 pediatricians in 50+ locations. It made note-taking faster and let pediatricians spend more time with patients. The AI creates notes and summarizes patient talks automatically.
Geisinger Health System: Geisinger uses AI to improve workflows and reduce inbox tasks, giving doctors more direct patient time. Their work shows how automation cuts after-hours work and lowers burnout.
Ochsner Health: AI helps doctors write responses to patient portal messages, handling many messages quickly.
The Permanente Medical Group: Their AI scribes reduce after-hours notes and help doctors focus on patients by transcribing visits as they happen.
AI also helps with things beyond clinical notes, such as managing billing and revenue cycle tasks. The American Hospital Association says about 46% of hospitals and health systems use AI to automate prior authorizations, claims processing, and denial handling. This cuts workload and errors.
For pediatric clinics, AI can create appeal letters for denied claims, check billing accuracy, and improve communication with payers. This helps cash flow and reduces admin work.
Using AI well needs planning. Hospitals must check that their systems are ready, make sure AI programs work well, fit AI into clinical work, and have doctors accept the technology. The Mayo Clinic stresses user-friendly design and updating AI regularly to keep it effective and avoid problems.
People must keep an eye on AI to stop errors, bias, or unfair results. Health groups should add AI in a way that keeps patients safe and meets doctors’ needs.
Though AI cuts paperwork and admin work, it works best with other methods.
For pediatric clinics in the U.S., combining these steps helps:
These methods together lower admin barriers, improve staff satisfaction, and make patient care better.
Pediatric healthcare in the U.S. faces special challenges with complicated admin work. There are many documentation needs, frequent insurance dealings, and sensitive child health records. Burnout, time spent on electronic records, and inefficient workflows make quality care harder.
Using tested administrative methods beyond AI, along with chosen AI tools, can reduce non-clinical workloads. Helping providers work better and feel better will improve patient care. Pediatricians can spend more time with children while still meeting documentation rules.
Keeping track of how well workflows work and ongoing staff training are important to keep these improvements going. Practice leaders and IT managers should balance spending on skilled people and technology to support these goals.
This approach supports pediatric healthcare providers and organizations as they handle admin demands while aiming to give good, efficient care within the U.S. healthcare system.
AI streamlines documentation by automating note-taking, summarizing patient interactions, and assisting in drafting responses. This reduces the hours physicians spend on electronic health records (EHR), especially outside of clinical hours, thus decreasing burnout and enhancing time for patient care.
Geisinger uses AI to optimize workflows and reclaim physician time. Texas Children’s Pediatrics implemented AI-supported documentation to reduce rote note-taking. The Permanente Medical Group employs ambient AI scribes for real-time transcription, improving physician satisfaction and patient interaction.
Physicians, including pediatricians, spend extensive hours on indirect patient care and administrative tasks such as documentation, insurance forms, and order entry. This administrative burden extends beyond work hours, contributing to burnout and reducing time available for direct patient care.
Pediatricians reported an average of 52.8-hour workweeks in 2024, with significant time devoted to documentation and indirect patient care, slightly lower than previous years but still substantial enough to impact work-life balance.
Health systems employ team-based care, embed clinical pharmacists, train medical assistants as scribes, and educate physicians on efficient billing methods. Tools like AMA STEPS Forward® provide playbooks for workflow optimization and reducing redundant tasks.
Ambient AI documentation allows physicians to focus on the patient during visits instead of typing notes. This real-time transcription ensures detailed, accurate medical records while enhancing physician-patient interaction and personalized care quality.
AI assists physicians by managing inboxes, filtering messages, drafting responses, and automating documentation tasks outside clinical hours. This helps physicians avoid ‘pajama time’ — work done after hours — improving their well-being.
Health systems educate physicians on alternatives to note-heavy documentation, such as time-based billing, and integrate scribes and AI tools to reduce excessive or redundant notes, making documentation more concise and efficient.
AI-supported documentation reduces the time spent on administrative tasks, thereby decreasing burnout and enhancing job satisfaction by allowing more time for meaningful patient interactions and reducing after-hours work.
AMA’s ‘Saving Time Playbook’ and ‘Taming the EHR Playbook’ offer evidence-based strategies to streamline workflows, reduce redundant EHR tasks, and enhance physician well-being. These resources guide healthcare leaders in implementing systemic changes for sustainable improvements.
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