Discussion
I want to share with you the gist of a mind-blowing conversation I had with my doctor today at my annual physical.
She asked about my mood, which led to a conversation about how AI is ruining everything, which prompted her to mention that she doesn’t use the AI transcription app that her hospital network is encouraging people to use, because she finds it’s too time-consuming for her to read and correct the AI transcriptions instead of just writing down her own notes.
#healthcare
1/5
ME: “Wait a minute, I assume you’re seeing at least six patients per day—”
DR: (interrupting) “Oh, I see *16* patients per day.”
ME: “OK, wow, 16 patients per day, so that means that by the time you get to Wednesday you’re supposed to be able to capture accurate notes from the 32 patients you saw on Monday and Tuesday, without having written anything down before that?”
DR: “Yes, that’s correct.”
3/5
ME: “That’s insane. Why don’t they give you a few minutes between patients to record notes immediately, rather than putting all of your ”admin time” separate on its own days?”
DR: “I guess they think it’s more efficient this way. When I’m in the office, vs. when I’m doing admin time at home, they want me seeing patients.”
🤦
4/5
ME: “So I guess this is why patients really need to advocate for themselves. It seems like they’re more likely to remember what happens at their appointments than their doctors are.”
DR: “Yes, that’s true.”
Now you know why your doctor’s notes come days after your appointment, or why when they do the notes are sparse and don’t capture nearly everything that was discussed at your appointment.
U.S. healthcare system, best in the world, amirite? [Narrator: he is not right.]
5/5
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ME: “I assume doctors are trained in how to capture the important points from a conversation with a patient, so it’s a lot faster and probably also more accurate for you to write quick notes between patients.”
This is where things went off the rails.
DR: “Oh, I don’t have time to write notes between patients. They want me seeing patients all day on practice days. I don’t do patient notes until my admin time on Wednesday and Friday.”
2/5