How AI EHR tools are helping support practice independence
AI EHR tools for fax automation and clinical documentation are helping one Maine doctor maintain practice independence and improve patient-centered care.
Maintaining practice independence is becoming increasingly difficult due to rising administrative burdens and declining reimbursement. However, for Joel Keenan, MD, owner of York Primary Care, AI EHR features are making a big difference.
Keenan has operated his solo internal medicine practice for over two decades, managing nearly every aspect of his practice himself, from billing to reception to clinical duties.
"I've always been determined to practice the way I do," said Keenan. "I've never wanted to work for anybody, so it's always been very important to me to retain that independence."
However, balancing administrative and clinical duties is no small feat.
"For every patient you see, you should assume you're going to have a dozen interactions related to that visit outside of the visit itself: to make the appointment, to make a follow-up appointment, to review labs, to send referrals, to send prescriptions, to answer follow-up questions from the patient," said Keenan.
AI-optimized workflows
When Keenan's EHR vendor, eClinicalWorks, reached out to him about new AI EHR features to streamline workflows, he was skeptical at first.
However, after using the tools, his perspective has shifted completely.
"It's been a game changer for me," he emphasized. "It's just freed me up fundamentally. I have so much more time to spend doing what matters for my patients -- reading about clinical stuff, figuring out what I need to know to help them."
I want to spread the word to other doctors to say, 'Hey, look, there's a better way to practice.' This is really giving us freedom to work the way we always wanted to.
Joel Keenan, MD, owner, York Primary Care
One of the AI tools that Keenan is using has helped him save a staggering 30 hours a month sorting incoming faxes. The technology scans and sorts through faxes using machine learning to match each fax to its respective patient with 75 to 85% accuracy. Physicians must approve the match before it is added to a patient's record.
"Incoming faxes are now automatically assigned to my patients' charts to the appropriate category -- lab, x-ray, consult, referral, what have you," said Keenan. "All I have to do is read it, and with one click, it goes into their chart. It's a good hour every day that I've saved, having that feature. It's made a big difference to me."
"That's pretty elaborate and extravagant," said Keenan. "I don't use it that much because I'm fast with what I do, and I don't often need that, but for really complex patients -- especially when there are family members involved and sometimes other clinicians -- it's great to be able to sit back and just talk. I don't even have to look at a computer screen, let alone type, and it will generate a note for me, and all I have to do is approve it."
Impact on the patient-provider relationship
Keenan said that AI has improved not only his workflow, but also his connection with patients -- something many physicians have lost in the digital age.
"My patients come into the office, and I don't even look at the computer," he said. "I just sit down and say, 'What's going on?' And then I don't say anything until they're done talking. That almost never happens. Patients love that. People love it when their doctor really listens, and most doctors just don't have time to do it."
He noted the irony that AI is helping physicians return to a more traditional model of care based on listening, pointing to the famous advice from 19th-century physician William Osler: "Listen to your patient; they are telling you the diagnosis."
Artificial intelligence, he said, is enabling that kind of patient-centered care once again.
"I've become kind of evangelical about this," Keenan emphasized. "I want to spread the word to other doctors to say, 'Hey, look, there's a better way to practice.' This is really giving us freedom to work the way we always wanted to."
As more independent physicians explore AI EHR tools, Keenan's experience suggests a promising path ahead, where technology doesn't replace the human connection in medicine but helps maintain it.
Hannah Nelson has been covering news related to health information technology and health data interoperability since 2020.
