Ask a group of clinicians what they would change about their working week and documentation is likely to come up first. Charting, forms and inbox management that spill into evenings and weekends are widely cited as drivers of burnout across the health professions.
There is no single fix, but several approaches reliably reduce the load.
Approaches that help
- Templates built for your practice. Short, structured templates for your most common visit types are faster than free text and easier to read later.
- Charting during the visit. Completing most of the note with the patient present, and telling them what you are recording, reduces end-of-day backlog.
- Team inbox management. Routing results, refill requests and forms to the right team member before they reach the physician.
- Protected administrative time. A scheduled block each week for forms and correspondence, treated like clinical time.
AI scribes
AI scribe tools, which draft a clinical note from a recorded conversation, are now being evaluated and adopted in several provinces. Before using one, check your regulatory college's guidance, confirm how and where recordings and data are stored, obtain patient consent, and review every note before it is signed. The clinician remains responsible for the content of the record.
Have an approach that has worked in your practice? Share it with other members.
Articles on medical.ca are written for health professionals. They are general information and do not replace your own clinical judgment, your regulatory college's guidance or advice from a lawyer or accountant.