Talk to clinicians today, and you’ll hear a common refrain: “I’m drowning in paperwork.” If you were to ask a doctor, nurse practitioner, or therapist why they first entered medicine, the most common answer would be to heal and care for others. However, the harsh reality of the job is that most clinicians spend large portions of their free time on evenings and weekends buried under administrative tasks.
According to the American Hospital Association, the average clinician spends twice as much time handling documentation, billing, and electronic health record (EHR) entries as they do on patient visits. These administrative tasks not only sap their energy, but also hurt their bottom line–especially for solo and small practices that would otherwise be able to see more patients. In recent years, clinician burnout has evolved from an occupational inconvenience to a financial emergency for healthcare practices struggling to keep up with high turnover rates and shrinking margins.
However, savvy clinicians have begun turning the tide with artificial intelligence tools—transforming their administrative burdens into newfound efficiency and, in turn, providing better and more affordable care. According to a report by Citi Global Insights, administrative tasks constitute approximately 25% of total healthcare spending. According to McKinsey, AI tools — like Freed and others — can, “automate nearly 45% of administrative tasks in the healthcare sector.” Moreover, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that broader adoption of AI in healthcare could reduce U.S. healthcare spending by 5% to 10%, translating to $200 billion to $360 billion annually. Ultimately, according to a recent Harvard study, lead to reduce treatment costs by 50%.
Here are three actionable ways clinicians can use AI to reclaim valuable hours, enhance profitability, improve patient care –and make healthcare more affordable.
1. Automate Clinical Documentation with AI Scribes
Documentation is consistently cited as clinicians’ least favorite task—and a top driver of burnout. AI-powered scribes are now offering tangible relief, automatically transcribing patient encounters into detailed, accurate clinical notes in real time. Among such tools, Freed, an AI clinician assistant, is one of the fastest-growing health-tech startups in the US due to its clinician-first design and simplicity.
In May, I spoke with Natalie Desseyn, a nurse practitioner specializing in psychiatry in Virginia, who credits Freed with saving her hours each day. Prior to Freed, Natalie regularly spent three to four hours each evening completing patient notes. Today, she spends just 30 minutes a week. “Freed has really given me my time—my actual life—back. By the time my visit is done, the note is generated, and I close my chart, close my computer, and I’m done,” Natalie shares. “As a solo provider, I’m now bringing in revenue of about a quarter million dollars a year, something I’d never be able to do if I had to do my own charting by hand.”
Natalie’s story is one among over 17,000 Freed subscribers leveraging AI to help with their clinical documentation–freeing up room to grow their small practices, while enjoying better work-life balance and increased patient satisfaction. Since launching in 2023, the company has saved clinicians 2.5M+ hours of documentation work— a clear demonstration that AI is generating massive efficiency gains for the practices that have gone all-in.
2. Enhance Patient Outcomes with AI-Driven Decision Support
Decision-making under pressure is a constant reality in healthcare, where clinicians must quickly interpret complex patient histories, lab results, and imaging studies—often under stressful circumstances and time constraints. Increasingly, healthcare practices are turning to AI-driven clinical decision support systems (CDSS) that integrate directly into EHRs and clinician workflows, offering real-time, evidence-based insights precisely when they’re most needed.
Companies like PathAI use artificial intelligence to analyze pathology slides, assisting pathologists and clinicians in achieving rapid and accurate cancer diagnostics. Tools like these can lead to earlier interventions and significantly improve patient outcomes by identifying subtle patterns that the human eye may miss.
AI-powered decision support systems don’t just boost clinical outcomes; they also offer compelling financial benefits. Early and accurate diagnoses not only save lives—they mitigate risk by reducing diagnostic errors, lowering malpractice costs, and enhancing patient satisfaction scores. These metrics directly influence practice profitability and sustainability, particularly for smaller practices operating with lean margins.
3. Optimize Scheduling and Billing with AI-Driven Automation
Behind every efficiently run healthcare practice is a streamlined back office. Unfortunately, small and independent practices rarely have the extensive administrative support common in larger healthcare systems. Tasks such as patient scheduling, appointment reminders, billing, and coding have become disproportionately burdensome, leading to increased overhead costs and lower productivity.
AI-powered administrative platforms, such as Zocdoc and Tebra, are streamlining healthcare operations by automating scheduling and billing processes. These platforms leverage machine learning to optimize appointment times, drastically reduce patient no-show rates, and accelerate the reimbursement process by minimizing billing errors.
Automating administrative tasks enhances financial outcomes by allowing clinicians and their teams to focus more time directly on patient care. For practices aiming to increase profitability and maintain sustainable operations, integrating AI-driven administrative support is an investment that pays off quickly and significantly.
Securing Tomorrow’s Practice
Burnout and strained margins are no longer inevitable woes of working in healthcare, but rather solvable challenges for those willing to embrace technological advancement for the sake of delivering quality patient care and keeping the doors open at their practices.
Clinicians now have powerful, accessible AI tools at their fingertips, and those who have embraced these solutions early are not only alleviating burnout and increasing operational efficiency but also positioning their practices to thrive in an increasingly demanding healthcare environment.
While it may sound counterintuitive, AI is helping healthcare professionals retire from their administrative duties and return to the human-centric elements of their job as caregivers–without the worry of financial strain along the way.
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