As a physician, I know all too well what clinicians in the U.S. today are up against. We’re being asked to do a lot more with a lot less. We’re tasked with producing more complete and accurate clinical documentation, reviewing endless notes, coding our own charts, and improving patient flow, all while providing the best patient experience and ensuring quality scores are optimal. All in a day’s work, right?

Our hippocratic oath binds us to taking care of patients, and that’s why we went into the practice of medicine. But the tasks now routinely part of our job make it difficult to practice at the top of our license. There is a silver lining here: Technology can help, and so can a connected workflow that is less siloed and creates greater impact for the clinician and the patient.

Used ethically and correctly, the AI explosion lends itself well to the world of health care, with guardrails and common sense mixed in. Tech shouldn’t replace clinicians but the offloading of the chores of health care allows us to focus on the core of medicine: providing patients with the best care possible. It’s time to modernize.

Helping health systems where they need it most

It’s critical for all types of health care organizations to embrace modernizing their processes to let clinicians and care teams spend more quality time with patients. This means letting technology do what it does best: making processes efficient, economical, and accessible.

For example:

• A clinician might use an AI scribe to capture details of a patient visit, giving the provider a few more minutes in direct conversation with the patient, rather than typing into a computer
• Using this note, AI can suggest additional codes for the clinician to consider
• A claim can be proactively scanned to determine accurate charge reconciliation and the likelihood of payment, keeping the payment cycle tight
• Information can be run through an agentic AI process that learns as it works, improving efficiencies even more

The benefits of modernizing technology are endless, but here are just a few:

• Clinicians can practice medicine they way they want, resulting in a happier and more satisfied state of mind
• Workflows behind the scenes take care of the administrative chores, connecting disparate areas into one unified system
• An understanding that AI must augment, not replace, clinicians

The care enablement approach

A care enablement platform that supports the entire patient journey in a comprehensive, integrated way solves for today’s fragmented, disjointed workflows that many organizations are using today.

These end-to-end solutions reduce administrative burden, improve access and the patient experience, and drive efficiency. They allow clinicians to deliver quality care to the right populations, at the right time, and at the right cost.

The care enablement platform model makes for effortless, more connected, and more meaningful relationships that drive value. It ensures there are shared goals and synergies that ultimately affect outcomes, financial performance, and sustainability.

With one platform and one partnership, organizations have a more coordinated, long-term strategic approach, lower IT burden, and an easier, simpler process for clinicians, patients, and the organization as a whole.

Point solutions aren’t a cure-all.

With aging, sicker populations, increased patient loads, staffing shortages, and a host of administrative chores, clinicians are overwhelmed, pulled in a million different directions, and often burned out. In fact, 77 percent of physicians said they’re dedicating significant time to non-reimbursable tasks, and more than 90 percent agree that the burden of regulatory requirements is getting worse, one survey found. At the same time, costs continue to rise while reimbursement isn’t keeping pace with care. While organizations often deploy multiple point solutions, these are only a band-aid for the systems that exist today.

AI has the potential to transform health care and has a wide range of use cases, yet many organizations lack a clear direction. A recent report found that approximately two-thirds of health care leaders say their organization is currently investing in AI technologies to enhance patient care and streamline administrative operations, yet only 13 percent have a clear strategy for integrating AI into clinical workflows despite citing AI clinical solutions as their top technology initiative.

Strategy implementation with the right human and tech touch

Today’s health care organizations are looking to move beyond point solutions to an accountable partner with a deep breadth of operational expertise, the ability to ease the administrative burden in a cohesive way across the entire journey, and guide them every step of the way. To build future-proof, sustainable businesses, organizations must move from vendor-only relationships to a long-term strategy that includes a platform model and a true, human-led partnership.

It’s essential to partner with an organization that understands the full patient journey and can bring a clear strategy to reduce clinician burden while blending human expertise with technology to drive change and boost adoption. While the human touch must always remain central to health care even in the wake of AI, rising costs and shrinking margins make it imperative to find new ways to improve care—for clinicians, for patients, and for the health system as a whole.

Christina Johns is a physician executive.