Doctors in the United States have more paperwork to do, and this is causing them to get very tired and unhappy with their jobs. Much of this paperwork happens after work hours and is often called “pajama time” because doctors work late at night at home. This extra work takes time away from seeing patients and from their own rest, making them feel burned out.
The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) started using AI-powered medical scribes in late 2023. Over 63 weeks, they studied 7,260 doctors and more than 2.5 million patient visits. The AI scribes helped save about 15,791 hours of documentation work in one year. That equals about 1,794 full eight-hour workdays that no longer had to be done manually.
Using AI scribes reduces the paperwork burden, so doctors can focus more on talking with patients instead of writing notes. Cutting down “pajama time” is very important because working after hours can cause tiredness, less satisfaction with work, and mistakes.
AI medical scribes are tools that listen quietly while doctors and patients talk during visits. They write down what is said right away and create draft notes for the doctor to check and finish. These AI scribes do not make medical decisions or give diagnoses. Their job is only to help with writing notes after appointments.
This lets doctors spend more time with patients without needing to look at a computer screen all the time. The AI scribe writes the first draft, so the doctor can focus on the conversation and care.
At TPMG, doctors who used the AI scribes in most of their patient visits (more than 89%) saved over twice as much time per note compared to those who used them less often. This shows that using AI scribes regularly helps make work more efficient.
Reducing the paperwork with AI scribes has improved doctors’ experiences when they see patients. Surveys found that 84% of doctors said patient communication got better because they spent less time on the computer and more on the patient.
Also, 82% of doctors said their overall job satisfaction went up after using AI scribes. These numbers matter to healthcare leaders who want to keep staff, lower burnout, and keep care quality high. When doctors are less stressed, patients get better care, and the medical practice runs more smoothly.
Burnout can cause less work done, more doctors leaving, and more mistakes. By cutting down on after-hours note writing, AI scribes help reduce this stress and support doctors’ health at work.
One big benefit of AI medical scribes is that they help bring back the personal side of doctor visits. Almost half of patients (47%) noticed that doctors spent less time looking at the computer during their visit. More than one third (39%) said they had better conversations with their doctors.
Over half of patients (56%) said their visits improved after AI scribes were used, and none said there was any negative change. This is good news for medical offices that want to improve patient satisfaction, which is important for their reputation and payment systems that focus on quality.
Doctors who can focus on patients without distraction can understand them better and build trust. This helps them make better diagnoses and makes patients more likely to follow treatments.
AI scribes are helpful in many medical fields. They are used most in areas where lots of paperwork is common, like mental health, primary care, and emergency medicine. These fields often have many complex patient details, so saving time here is very helpful.
Doctors of all ages and experience levels are using AI scribes. The average user was about 47 years old and had been a doctor for nearly 20 years. Women doctors were a bit more likely to use the technology, especially in jobs with lots of paperwork. This shows the technology works for many kinds of doctors.
Even though AI scribes help a lot, some problems remain, especially with fitting them into the usual work processes. Some doctors said editing the AI’s notes took more time than typing notes themselves. This often happened when the AI did not match well with the electronic health record (EHR) templates they used.
For administrators and IT managers, it is important to make sure AI scribes work smoothly with current EHR systems. Making the templates easy to change and the user interface simple can help avoid these problems.
Some doctors worry that AI scribes may change the way they like to do documentation. Proper training and support that fit different doctor needs can help ease these worries and increase acceptance.
AI does more than just help with note-taking. It can assist with many office tasks like answering phones, scheduling appointments, and sorting patient needs. This can cut down on office work and make the practice run better.
For example, Simbo AI uses AI to handle phone calls, book appointments, and give basic information. This helps reduce the work for office staff so they can focus on harder tasks.
Using AI scribes with front-office automation creates a stronger system for handling paperwork and patient communication. Practice owners and IT managers can use these tools to make offices more efficient and lower costs while keeping or improving patient care quality.
AI automation also lowers repetitive manual work, cuts mistakes, shortens wait times, and helps the office respond faster. These things together improve patient satisfaction and boost staff productivity.
The TPMG experience shows that AI scribe programs can grow and keep working well in large groups of doctors. Over 3,400 doctors used AI scribes in at least 100 patient visits in one year. This shows many doctors can use the technology successfully.
Doctor use of AI scribes kept growing steadily, which means they became more comfortable and willing to use it. Moving between different AI providers also did not cause major problems, showing the technology can adapt in changing IT settings.
Healthcare leaders in the US can consider AI scribes as part of long-term plans to reduce doctor workload and improve care. These solutions fit well with growing attention to doctor health, better efficiency, and patient-focused care.
Using AI medical scribes in the US has shown promise in lowering doctor burnout, raising job satisfaction, and bringing back better patient-doctor conversations by allowing more face-to-face time. Adding AI tools for front office and workflow help, like those from Simbo AI, can further improve healthcare operations.
Here are some key points for practice leaders to think about when looking at AI scribes and automation:
By thoughtfully adding AI medical scribes with front-office automation, healthcare practices can build better workplaces that help doctors, patients, and the whole office. Using smart technology along with good care is important to meet today’s and future healthcare needs in the United States.
AI-powered medical scribes are ambient augmented intelligence tools that transcribe and summarize patient-physician conversations in real time. Unlike decision support tools, they do not provide diagnoses but passively capture dialogue to generate draft clinical notes, which physicians can edit for accuracy, thus reducing the documentation burden.
AI scribes saved TPMG physicians an estimated 15,791 hours of documentation time over one year, equivalent to 1,794 eight-hour workdays, significantly reducing time spent on notes, orders, and after-hours ‘pajama time.’
Physicians reported improved communication (84%), increased overall work satisfaction (82%), while 47% of patients noticed less computer focus by doctors, and 39% experienced more direct physician engagement, enhancing the quality of visits without any reported negative effects.
Departments with high documentation burdens, such as mental health, primary care, and emergency medicine, showed the highest AI scribe adoption due to the substantial relief these tools provided in managing complex, time-consuming documentation tasks.
No significant correlation existed between physician age or years in practice and adoption rates. Users averaged 47 years old and 19 years post-training, indicating broad appeal across demographics with slight overrepresentation of women, especially in high documentation specialties.
Barriers included lack of integration with existing note templates and the perception that editing AI-generated notes could be more time-consuming than typing manually. These workflow and usability challenges affected adoption rates among some physicians.
AI scribes significantly reduced time in note-taking, orders, and work outside office hours, though a minor increase in EHR inbox time was noted. Overall, workload decreased substantially, improving physician wellness and reducing burnout.
By alleviating documentation burdens, AI scribes reduced after-hours work, enabling physicians to spend more face-to-face time with patients. This restoration of the human connection contributed to improved physician satisfaction and well-being.
The program scaled effectively, with over 3,400 physicians using the tool for 100+ visits in the first year. Usage remained consistent through vendor changes, and 66% of surveyed physicians used the scribe tool five or more days per week, demonstrating sustainability.
AI scribes offer measurable benefits in improving efficiency and patient care, but further research is needed to optimize specialty-specific use, workflow integration, and address adoption barriers. Responsible, user-centered implementation is key to broader health system adoption and sustaining physician well-being.
Simbo is using AI agents to automate all phone related workflows. Connect now to know more.
Schedule AI Agents Demo Now© Since 2019, Simbo AI.
