Healthcare Professionals Deserve Better: Addressing Administrative Overload

Two reports caught my eye this week, on topics I care a lot about. 

First of all, healthcare in Alberta is in the news. Yet again. Lots of discussions are going on about what we need to fix, from government to AHS to frontline workers. We all use the system. We pay for it. We need it to be there for ourselves, our loved ones, our communities. And yet our healthcare feels perpetually strained.

That's why this interested me: A report from The Alberta College of Family Physicians and the Alberta Medical Association entitled "Decreasing Administrative Burden" tells us that healthcare professionals in private practice spend 15 to 20 hours a week on administrative tasks.

Not patient care, not professional development. 15 to 20 hours on admin! Every week!

And they’re already working a crazy number of hours. 75% of family physicians work 40 to 60 hours a week. 22% work between 60 and 80 hours. This means around 20% or more of their valuable time is spent on administrative tasks. In an already unsustainable work-life balance situation that’s burning out our precious healthcare workers.

This is not sustainable – in any industry or profession, but especially one as important as health.

Now the report talks a lot about big, systemic improvement: better process integration across partners, standardization among insurance providers, and so forth. These are big items that we should all learn about and lean into.

But what if we could do something so frontline workers could see benefits today?

Well, here's the second item I noticed: the recognition of a new organizational model, described as "The Frontier Firm", 'Structured around on-demand intelligence and powered by “hybrid” teams of humans + agents, these [organizations] scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster.' In short, doing far more with less, thanks to AI.

It’ll happen in steps. First, AI will act as an assistant, removing administrative work and helping people do tasks better and faster. (We’re seeing this already.) Next, AI agents might join teams as “digital colleagues,” taking on specific tasks at human direction, freeing employees to do more valuable work. Finally, humans would set direction for agents that run entire processes, checking in as needed.

Of course, healthcare has unique requirements, especially in family medical clinics: Confidentiality, trustworthiness, timeliness, expertise, and above all, compassion. Will AI address all of those? We’ll see.

But dare we imagine what a medical practice – any organization – might do by replacing 15-20 hours of administrative work per employee with more time for patients?

Or more time for our healthcare professionals to live the balanced life they recommend for their own patients?

I think it’s worth the discussion!