Doctors, especially pediatricians, have slightly fewer clinical hours but still spend a lot of time on tasks that are not direct patient care. In 2024, the average pediatric doctor worked 52.8 hours each week. A large part of this time is spent on paperwork, order entry, and other administrative duties. Although they spend less time in direct clinical work than before, these administrative tasks have increased outside of normal work hours. About 22.5% of doctors say they spend more than eight hours outside of work handling electronic health record (EHR) tasks, which is higher than 20.9% in 2023.
This heavy administrative work adds to stress and burnout among doctors. Even though burnout dropped from 48.2% in 2023 to 43.2% in 2024, it still affects almost half of the doctors. This pressure reduces the time doctors have for patients and lowers their job satisfaction and care quality.
AI can help, but many healthcare systems in the U.S. have also added other ways to deal with pediatric documentation problems. These include changing how work flows, adjusting roles, and teaching staff to cut down on tasks that are not needed, while keeping care quality high.
Many health systems use team-based care to lower the paperwork load for doctors.
Sharing these duties lets doctors spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients.
Many healthcare groups teach doctors how to write notes better and avoid “note bloat.” Note bloat means putting too much information in clinical notes, which makes records bulky and hard to use.
The American Medical Association’s (AMA) STEPS Forward® guides help doctors:
These training programs help pediatricians make quality notes faster without losing important details.
Some healthcare tech companies offer all-in-one systems that link many office tasks to make work easier.
Greenway Health provides one platform that combines EHR, patient engagement, financial systems, and analytics. This system helps reduce repeating work and manual data entry, especially in pediatric clinics.
Benefits include:
This setup lowers the office work needed and helps patients have a better experience.
AI is not the only answer, but it can play an important part in making pediatric documentation easier. When used well, AI and automation reduce paperwork, improve record accuracy, and give doctors more time for patients.
Texas Children’s Pediatrics tested AI note-taking for more than 250 doctors in over 50 locations. AI listens and writes notes during patient visits, cutting down how much time doctors spend on typing.
The Permanente Medical Group uses AI that listens during talks to make quick summaries. This helps doctors spend more time with patients and less time typing notes after work, cutting down so-called “pajama time.”
AI also helps with managing messages to reduce work after hours. For example, Baptist Health Medical Group has a pilot program where a team answers doctors’ messages during vacations to stop backlog.
Ochsner Health uses AI to draft replies to patient portal messages. The AI reads complicated messages and suggests answers, easing the message load common in pediatric offices.
Administrative work is not just paperwork but also billing and coding. AI tools help with automated coding, billing, handling claim denials, and prior authorizations.
Auburn Community Hospital cut unfinished billing cases by 50% and improved coder productivity by 40% with AI tools. This lets staff focus on more important tasks and helps the clinic’s finances.
A health network in Fresno reduced denials for prior authorizations by 22% and for services not covered by 18% using AI claims review. This saved staff 30 to 35 hours weekly.
Health informatics workers help combine AI, data, and clinical knowledge. They improve access to patient records and sharing of information between departments. This supports better clinical decisions and cuts down repeated tasks.
Studies show that informatics helps turn large amounts of data into useful information. This streamlines work and matches administrative duties better with patient care needs.
To reduce administrative work, leaders should use both people and technology together:
Pediatric healthcare managers can improve their work environment by using a mix of technology and well-trained staff. Cleaning up documentation tasks, cutting down repeated work, and changing workflows alongside AI tools can make doctors’ jobs easier and improve patient care in clinics across the U.S.
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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