In 2024, pediatricians in the U.S. worked about 52.8 hours each week, a slight drop from 54.3 hours in 2023. About half of this time was spent seeing patients. The rest was used for tasks like writing notes, entering orders, and doing administrative work. Indirect care, like documentation, took around 13 hours a week, and extra administrative tasks took about 7.3 hours weekly. This amount of work is common in many medical fields but stands out in pediatrics because of extra records for vaccinations, growth checks, and family history.
A concerning issue is that many pediatricians do their electronic health record (EHR) work outside of regular hours. About 22.5% say they spend over eight hours per week on EHR tasks after work, called “pajama time.” This extra work can harm work-life balance, raise stress, and lead to burnout. Even though burnout rates dropped from 53% in 2022 to 43.2% in 2024, documentation still plays a big role in stress.
Cutting down the time doctors spend on these extra tasks can help them feel better at work, reduce burnout, and give them more time with patients.
The American Medical Association (AMA) created playbooks to help make documentation easier and improve doctor well-being. These guides, like the “Taming the EHR Playbook” and the “Saving Time Playbook,” show pediatric teams ways to fix workflows, cut extra work, and use EHR systems more efficiently.
The playbooks suggest several ideas:
By using these ideas, pediatric offices can lower admin work and give doctors more time to care for patients.
Changing how work flows is important to improve doctor workload and note quality. Pediatric offices can recheck daily routines to find where extra work or slow parts happen. For example, many doctors spend too much time navigating EHR systems that aren’t made for pediatrics.
Stopping usual routines for a close look helps teams find:
Some centers, such as Texas Children’s Pediatrics, tested AI to help with documentation. Over 250 doctors in 50 places found less note-taking work. This showed that adding technology with workflow changes can make documentation faster without lowering care quality.
More pediatric providers are using AI and automation to handle notes and admin work. AI tools can help by:
Hospitals around the U.S. have started using these AI tools with good results. For example:
This use of AI fits with AMA’s advice to use technology to cut extra EHR work and reduce after-hours tasks.
Even though there are efforts to cut work hours, more pediatricians say they have heavy EHR work after hours. In 2024, 22.5% said they spend over eight hours a week on EHR work outside normal hours, up from 20.9% in 2023. This extra work causes tiredness, less job happiness, and less time with family or personal activities.
Health systems are trying different ideas to reduce this extra work, including:
These methods show growing awareness that doctor well-being depends on lowering EHR burdens. Using smart workflows helps reduce fatigue, increase job happiness, and improve patient care.
For medical practice leaders in the U.S., cutting pediatric documentation work means balancing admin rules with patient care. Some factors that affect workflow changes in the U.S. are:
Using evidence-based workflows and technology in the U.S. health system calls for careful planning, ongoing staff involvement, and fitting with goals for patient care and staff well-being.
Burnout among doctors is still a big problem, with nearly half showing at least one symptom in 2024. Lowering documentation and after-hours work has been linked to feeling better at work.
Doctors who spend less time on notes and admin tasks report:
Using AI-supported notes and AMA’s workflow guides helps these improvements by cutting extra writing, making processes faster, and shifting tasks.
For leaders ready to use these methods, important actions include:
By following these steps, pediatric offices in the U.S. can expect better doctor work satisfaction and improved patient care.
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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