Is technology moving the needle on clinician burnout?

Clinician burnout remains one of the most urgent challenges in healthcare. In recent years, hospitals have turned to tools such as ambient documentation and virtual nursing, betting that AI could lighten the load by cutting down on paperwork and freeing physicians and nurses to focus on patient care. The question now, leaders say, is not whether these tools can help, but how much of the burden they can ease.

At Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, early signs point to progress. The system has begun rolling out ambient documentation tools alongside other digital initiatives to streamline clinicians’ workflows.

“Indicators suggest a positive trend,” John Chelico, MD, CommonSpirit’s chief medical information officer, told Becker’s. Documentation times are being tracked, surveys show clinicians feel more effective, and many have reported that the tools allow them to spend more time with patients.

But Dr. Chelico emphasized that software alone will not fix the problem. 

“Moral distress, compassion fatigue and systemic workflow pressures are more complex to resolve,” he said.

Renton, Wash.-based Providence has taken an ambitious swing at the problem, operating what it says is the largest implementation of Microsoft’s ambient solution in the country. The tool is live across ambulatory clinics and emergency departments, and the system is expanding it into inpatient settings.

Providence CMIO Maulin Shah, MD, described the tool as “an absolute game changer.” He said physicians not only feel less burdened but report measurable improvements in burnout scores. Time spent documenting after hours, sometimes called “pajama time,” has gone down, and physicians report a greater sense of effectiveness in their jobs.

“Ambient AI has allowed me to walk into the exam room, focus entirely on my patient and leave knowing the note is already taken care of,” Dr. Shah told Becker’s. “That is transformational.”

Still, even with the improvements Providence has seen, new technologies have not erased the mounting demands on clinicians. Patient communications have become a major source of strain, compounded by the steady stream of secure chat interruptions that fragment the workday.

“Since COVID-19, we’ve had about a fivefold increase in the number of patient messages with no decrease in daily workload for physicians,” Dr. Shah said. “Now they are administering care through a new medium with no time to do it.”

The system is also using AI tools to triage messages and limit unnecessary disruptions.

Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health has leaned on AI in a different way, building clinical note summarization into its workflows. Physicians can call up condensed versions of patient charts — tailored by specialty — rather than scrolling through lengthy records. The feedback has been strong enough that physicians are asking the system to expand the tool to lab results and patient communication.

“Physicians are giving us feedback that not only does [technology] save time, they want more of it,” Sameer Sethi, the health system’s chief AI and insights officer, told Becker’s. Yet he remains cautious. “If we don’t manage the workflow well, AI is going to become a bunch of beeps that no one’s paying attention to because there’s too much of it.”

“We’ve thrown a lot of technology at clinicians,” he added. “But adoption is about trust. If they don’t understand what AI is doing for them or can’t explain it to their patients, we lose the value.”

For him, the future lies in “agentic AI”: determining which tasks can safely be automated and which require a human hand.

Across these health systems, the conversation around burnout appears to be shifting. The tools are beginning to show measurable results, but the leaders deploying them are careful not to oversell their impact. Relief from documentation and clerical work is important, they said, but it is only one piece of a larger puzzle. Cultural change, adequate staffing and strong leadership remain just as essential to creating a workplace where clinicians feel supported.

“Technology is an important tool,” Dr. Chelico said. “But a holistic approach that addresses work environment, staffing needs and emotional resilience is critical to truly mitigating burnout.”

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