I have a great doctor. I’ve enjoyed his approach to providing care so much that I was greatly distressed when, at my last visit, he told me he was thinking of retiring early. While I consider myself fortunate to have a positive and dependable relationship with my doctor, fewer people now relate to that sentiment than before.

Gallup recently reported that America’s trust in professionals has declined, with overall trust in medical doctors falling 14 percent since 2021, reaching its lowest level since the mid-1990s. Something is amiss in the physician-patient relationship, and it needs to be healed.

Some causes are outside of physicians’ control — a flood of misinformation from Dr. Google, for example. However, as a glass-half-full person, I see challenges as an excellent opportunity for improvement. Some of these issues are within the control of the health care organizations where physicians practice and can be addressed relatively quickly with the right approach and perspective.

Administrative inefficiencies are an issue that has contributed to a long-standing erosion of trust between doctors and patients. These inefficiencies include excessive process steps in electronic health records (EHRs) and unnecessary complications in medical coding and data entry. Left unchecked, these operational obstacles gradually metastasize into wasted time and a lack of trust for both providers and patients.

Patients become frustrated when they have trouble navigating the administrative process of scheduling and attending a health visit, especially if they also face unexpected charges due to denied claims. They can feel ignored if their providers spend more time looking at a screen than at them, and they may decide to forgo further care or resort to online information after leaving an unsatisfactory appointment.

Physicians are frustrated, too, as shown by the high degree of burnout and dissatisfaction in the industry. They also feel rushed, and they’re overwhelmed when the tools they’re given require multiple inputs and prolonged screen time. Doctors spend as much as 50 percent of their time on administrative tasks when they would prefer to focus their time and energy on delivering care.

Solutions to reduce administrative bloat need to occur at the health system level, but physicians have valuable insight and experience to help streamline implementation

EHR workflows need to work for doctors, not against them. Too often, EHRs have not been examined from the physician’s perspective, so while they’ve become integral to care delivery, EHRs still present physicians with unnecessary burdens. When it can take dozens of steps to order and document something as common as a flu shot, it’s no wonder doctors become consumed by screen time.

I urge health system leaders and practice administrators to engage with their clinicians to figure out what’s working and, more importantly, what’s not. Frontline care providers are in the best position to help adjust the EHRs to eliminate unnecessary steps and support clinical workflows. Physicians can also advocate for annual training (and each time the EHR system is updated) and ensuring training content is regularly refreshed to maximize efficiency.

Technology needs to reduce workloads, not expand them. AI-powered documentation and medical coding software are increasingly freeing up physicians to have honest conversations with patients again. Automating coding is helping to reduce inaccuracies in claims that could trigger denials, thereby conserving physicians’ time and alleviating patient frustration. However, new technology can unnecessarily complicate life if not used strategically — and too often, new tools are adopted without adequate input from clinicians.

Physicians should be involved in assessing new technology before it’s purchased rather than just piloting its implementation later. It’s helpful to leverage others’ experiences with the latest technology to know how much training will be required and when and how the training can be administered. Equally important is to have clinicians help manage how and when a rollout of new technologies and upgrades should occur.

Reducing wasteful and costly administrative inefficiencies often gets overlooked in favor of what seem to be more pressing priorities within a busy health system. Still, it’s high time that we prioritize the elimination of administrative burdens leading to physician burnout and patient dissatisfaction. The solutions are within reach and can help restore trust and heal the vital doctor-patient relationship.

Allen Fredrickson is a health care executive.