Main image courtesy of San Fernando Community Health Center.

Practicing family medicine takes passion and a commitment to caring for patients throughout all stages of their lives. These doctors, who may also be referred to as primary care physicians, are trained to offer comprehensive care to patients that include routine health check ups, screenings, immunizations, preventative care, as well as health-risk assessments. 

• This article will cover:
  
  • How family medicine doctors use AI scribes
  • The benefits of using AI scribes for notes
  • The best options for an AI scribe for family medicine notes

Whether it’s a newborn baby or a senior, family medicine providers have a large knowledge of a variety of health issues and problems, and are often the first point of contact for health concerns. Because of the years of trust developed with their patients, they are often also a trusted resource for chronic illness management with other specialists.

It’s easy to see how these clinicians can get overwhelmed with administrative tasks that could potentially take away from time spent caring for their patients. That’s why technology like AI scribes for family medicine notes can be incredibly helpful. 

Can AI scribes be used for family medicine?

How are AI scribes used in family medicine?

AI is becoming more and more common, and benefiting a lot of industries along the way. Healthcare is no different, and it has really made an impact in how clinicians can provide improved care to their patients. Primary care doctors are responsible for a wide variety of clinical tasks, in addition to the administrative tasks that help keep patient information organized, and their practice running smoothly. These physicians have a lot to do, which is why it’s great that AI can relieve some of their cognitive load and prevent them from having to deal with the possibility of burnout.

• Assisting with notes. One of the main areas where AI scribes can really make an impact on family medicine practitioners is with helping to create their notes. Each encounter with a patient requires a provider to create a note that reflects their current medical state, health concerns, and the reasons for their visit. While it might seem like a small task, often it can really add up, sometimes even requiring physicians to stay after their shift to complete them. This constant stream of work and the cognitive load that comes with it can really take a toll, not to mention it results in less accurate notes and increases the potential for important information to be left out.

With an AI scribe, providers can instead allow the application to listen to the encounter and transcribe what occurs. This gives clinicians the opportunity to fully engage with their patients instead of worrying about getting the information down and creating a note.

• Faster, accurate diagnoses. In addition to helping practitioners spend more time on caring for their patients instead of clerical work, AI is also being used to provide accurate, faster diagnoses. AI learns how to make diagnoses by sifting through mountains of data, finding patterns in patient medical histories and symptoms. Using AI to review diagnostics like x-rays and MRIs often leads to faster and more accurate diagnoses of issues—so problems are caught early and patients can start treatment sooner.

• Streamlining office processes. Another way that AI can help family medicine providers is with administrative tasks related to running a healthcare facility. Most AI scribes sync automatically with EHRs (see note below) so that updated information is available instantly for the entire care team. As the note is created, AI can precisely code the medical information so that when it is billed, there is a higher chance that the claim will be approved. This makes the revenue cycle a lot easier to manage. 

AI is to thank for automating patient journeys so that they’re reminded of appointments, tests, or follow ups that were prescribed. It also efficiently manages check ins and checking out. 

• It should be pointed out that some AI scribes do not sync up automatically with EHR systems, but they can still provide lots of benefits because they create an accurate note that just needs to be copy/pasted into the EHR system.

What are some of the benefits of using an AI scribe for family medicine notes?

Primary care providers can benefit a lot from AI scribes

Including an AI scribe is a great way to ensure your practice is running more efficiently, and it’s giving providers a chance to spend more time on clinical care, rather than administrative tasks. There are a lot of other advantages as well, including:

• Decreasing burnout
  
  • Perhaps the most obvious benefit of including an AI scribe in your family medicine practice comes the form of reducing provider burnout. Having to see patients all day and treat a variety of ailments, as well as fill out all the necessary clerical work, can take a lot of time away for practitioners. Time they could spend seeing more patients, or taking a few minutes of rest. AI scribes ensure they don’t miss what the patient is saying, and have a more accurate note in the process. Not having to spend extra time filling out notes can save clinicians time in the long run, and that can make a big difference in their mood and energy level.

• Improving patient care.
  
  • Providers want to offer the best possible care to patients, but they can only do so when they’re not burned out or dealing with an unmanageable workload. Reducing some of the cognitive load is exactly what AI scribes can do. Physicians don’t have to remember everything from an encounter, because the application transcribes it all. They also can use the AI to add additional notes or addendums, and easily pull up patient information. 

Patients feel that doctors are really giving their undivided attention to them when their encounter is being transcribed. Physicians do not want to miss important information during the encounter, which is why without an application they are typically writing their notes as the patient speaks. Patients would rather have the focus of their provider on them, instead of creating the perfect note.

• Improving the revenue flow.
  
  • AI scribes are adept at including medical codes for treatments and diagnoses at the point of care, ensuring that each item is correctly accounted for. This helps the revenue flow move more efficiently, as bills are paid on time because they are done right the first time. When bills have to be sent back and re-coded it causes disruptions, and requires more time for the staff to go back and find what the correct codes are. 

AI scribes are also more likely to include all the proper coding, so that the practice can bill for the different aspects of the patient’s care. 

• Cost effective way to organize patient flow.
  
  • Having an automated patient journey is a great way to ensure that it’s easy for patients to understand what they need to do next, and feel empowered about their treatment plans. Patients can be reminded of appointments and follow ups, making it less likely they’ll miss an important visit.  Information is updated immediately so everyone on the healthcare team has access to the right information. 

AI scribes for family medicine notes

Which AI scribes would help out family medicine providers the most?

If learning more about an AI scribe sounds like a good idea, you’ll be pleased to know that there are a lot you can choose from. The first step to making a decision starts with narrowing down what you want from an AI scribe for notes, and then doing a little research. Lots of ambient medical scribes have a free trial, a free tier of service, or offer a demo, so take advantage of that. This is the only way you can really know how the application actually works in a clinical setting. Knowing what you want to get out of adding an AI scribe is important, as that will also help you decide between brands. A few other things to keep in mind include:

• Ensure that it is HIPAA compliant
• That it is compatible with your EHR system (or you can easily copy/paste)
• It is affordable for your practice
• Can be used on a phone/tablet as well as a desktop/laptop
• There is support if you get stuck

Keeping those factors in mind, consider checking out these AI scribes for your family medicine notes.

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Playback Health

Playback Health offers primary care providers everything they need to quickly get up and running with their ambient AI scribe. Whether you want to have notes transcribed in real time, you need a better flow of patient information in the office, or you want to automate processes, Playback’s scribe can assist you with all that and offers:

• A 2 week free trial
• Two levels of service for large and small family medicine practices
• Ongoing support
• Temples and customization
• 20% increase in productivity
• HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant

Scribeberry

Another option for an AI scribe is Scribeberry, which transcribes notes as the provider speaks to the patient and automates patient intake. Additionally you can count on this ambient medical scribe to:

• Help providers spend less time on paperwork
• HIPAA compliant
• Seamless EHR integration
• Flexible and customizable

Freed AI

If you’re looking for an AI scribe that will help save hours doing time consuming note creation from scratch, consider looking into Freed AI. Their goal is to help reduce clinician burnout, while creating more accurate and complete notes for patients’ records. You can also expect:

• Less time spent on clerical tasks like patient intake
• More accurate notes
• Copy/paste to EHRs
• HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant

Will AI replace doctors?

Although AI is making a positive impact in all types of healthcare specialties, the question persists of whether AI will eventually replace doctors. It’s a good idea to first understand that AI is not designed to replace the important human connection between doctor and patient, but instead assist providers and augment treatment. AI and doctors will continue to work together to ensure a better experience overall for patients. Physicians will rely on AI to automate tedious clerical tasks like note creation, and will use it to provide potential suggestions based on the data analysis. The clinician can then weigh that against their expertise and experience, and come up with a treatment plan of care. 

The ability to accurately (and quickly) diagnose a patient will improve as AI gets exposed to more data from a variety of patients of different backgrounds. It’s essential to understand that the empathy and decision making capabilities of practitioners are not going to be replaced by AI, instead it’s better to think of it as a great tool providers will have at their disposal.

Will you give an AI medical scribe a try in your family practice?

There is a lot to like about what AI medical scribes can do to benefit family medicine practitioners. Whether you want to spend more time really listening to your patients, would like a more streamlined patient journey, or want the peace of mind knowing that each encounter will be properly coded and billed, AI scribes could make a significant impact on your practice.