Physicians are trained to heal patients, but nowadays they spend more time looking at computer screens than engaging directly with people's eyes. For every hour of direct patient care, doctors now dedicate two hours to paperwork during the day and another one to two hours at home each night. This documentation burden has transformed healthcare professionals into data entry clerks, driving an epidemic of burnout that threatens the foundation of American healthcare.
Dr. Kevin Ciresi, a physician-turned-operations executive with experience managing multi-site health care systems, believes artificial intelligence will fundamentally reverse this crisis within the next two years. His bold prediction: AI will automate 75% of physician documentation tasks by 2026, allowing doctors to focus more on patient care rather than entering data into electronic health records.
This transformation is already underway, with nearly two-thirds of physicians (66%) now utilizing AI in their practice, representing a 78% increase from 2023, according to recent data from the American Medical Association. Ciresi's vision of ambient AI technology, which captures and converts doctor-patient conversations into clinical notes in real-time, could soon eliminate the screen barrier that has come to define modern medicine.
The Documentation Crisis Overwhelming Health Care
Numbers paint a stark picture of an unsustainable system. Healthcare professionals refer to after-hours documentation as "pajama time," which steals precious hours from their family and personal lives. Recent Athenahealth research shows 69% of physicians report excessive after-hours documentation work.
Burnout costs the U.S. health care system $4.6 billion annually through physician turnover and reduced work hours. More critically, 62% of physicians identify excessive documentation requirements as their primary cause of burnout. Around 30% of doctors currently consider early retirement.
Kevin Ciresi, who leads KFC MDInc Consulting after decades of managing health care operations, understands this crisis intimately. "The big topic is paperwork," he explains. "It's even worse for nurses than it is for physicians." His extensive background spans clinical practice and healthcare administration, providing unique insight into both human costs and systemic inefficiencies.
Envisioning AI-Powered Documentation Revolution
Kevin Ciresi's vision centers on real-time, ambient technology eliminating barriers between physician-patient interaction and record-keeping. "I'd want a system where I walk in to see the patient and the whole thing is recorded and transcribed," he describes.
"Hi Jane, how are you doing with your operation? Well, let's take a look at your wounds. Oh, thank you, doctor. Everything is there in what they said, what I said, and then that all becomes a part of their record."
Such technology would automatically condense interactions into SOAP notes (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan), the fundamental documentation structure of medicine. "I don't think we'll ever get away from that because it is just a way for us to think about it, and it's automatically there," Ciresi notes. His comprehensive healthcare background uniquely positions him to understand both clinical workflows and technological possibilities.
AI wouldn't eliminate clinical thinking but free physicians to focus on analysis rather than data entry. As Ciresi has written about healthcare transformation, the goal is restoring the physician-patient relationship to its rightful place at the center of medical care.
Instead of spending hours each evening reviewing and approving documentation, physicians could review and approve AI-generated notes within minutes. "If that came in real time just by wearing a microphone, that'd be great," Ciresi observes. "And then just sign off on it, which would take minutes."
Current Implementation and Results
Kevin Ciresi's envisioned technology has moved beyond science fiction. Current data shows 21% of physicians use AI for documentation of billing codes, medical charts, or visit notes, up from 13% in 2023. Additionally, 20% of users utilize AI for discharge instructions, care plans, and progress notes, an increase from 14% the previous year.
At The Permanente Medical Group, physicians using ambient AI scribes save an average of one hour per day at their keyboards. Between October 2023 and December 2024, ambient AI scribes assisted 7,260 physicians across 2,576,627 patient encounters. Mental health, emergency medicine, and primary care had the highest adoption rates, reflecting the specialties with the greatest documentation burdens.
Smartphones with microphones transcribe patient encounters, employing machine learning and natural language processing to generate clinical notes. Users experienced statistically significant reductions in "pajama time" (1.03 minutes), after-hours work (1.83 minutes), and documentation time per appointment (0.40 minutes).
Market Growth and Technological Advancement
The AI healthcare market growth has been explosive, rising from $6.7 billion in 2020 to $22.4 billion in 2023, a 233% increase. Generative AI health care markets alone are expected to surpass $2 billion by 2025.
Abridge recently closed a $150 million Series C funding round, with its CEO describing adoption rates as "historic." Direct integration with Epic Systems, the largest electronic health record vendor, enables seamless workflow integration. DeepScribe reports that its ambient AI model, refined using over 5 million labeled patient conversations, produces documentation 59% more accurate than GPT-4 alone.
Companies are achieving specialty-specific customization. DeepScribe has captured 600,000-plus oncology visits, developing oncology-specific AI ideal for longitudinal care. Such advances suggest technology is approaching reliability levels necessary for widespread clinical adoption.
Implementation Challenges and Safeguards
Despite promising trajectories, Kevin Ciresi acknowledges significant challenges that must be overcome to achieve 75% documentation replacement. "The downside is, first of all, it can be wrong because you're only pulling from what they know," he cautions. Physician oversight and robust quality assurance systems remain essential requirements.
Physicians surveyed during 2024 identified the top AI adoption requirements:
- Designated feedback channels (88%)
- Data privacy assurances (87%)
- EHR integration (84%)
These findings underscore the importance of seamless technical implementation and security measures.
Ciresi warns against over-reliance. "You take judgment out of it and clinicians become too reliant on it," he observes, comparing risks to early internet search experiences. "Don't mistake Google for my M.D. degree. This is what I think you have." His perspective on balancing board room efficiency with exam room humanity highlights the need to maintain clinical judgment alongside technological advancement.
Current AI scribe technology works only for encounters spoken entirely in English. Regulations about certified medical interpretation services limit use in multilingual settings. Privacy concerns and the potential for AI bias necessitate ongoing attention and effective mitigation strategies.
Path to 75% Automation
Current trends support Kevin Ciresi's prediction. Physician enthusiasm for AI continues growing, with 75% believing AI could improve work efficiency, up from 69% in 2023. More tellingly, 57% identified reducing administrative burdens through automation as AI's most significant opportunity.
Three areas showed significant gains between the 2023 and 2024 surveys regarding AI helpfulness: work efficiency (75%, up from 69%), stress and burnout (54%, up from 44%), and cognitive overload (48%, up from 40%).
Accuracy improvements and integration advances continue diminishing adoption barriers. Physician desperation for documentation relief, combined with improving AI capabilities, creates conditions for accelerated adoption. As noted in his business ventures, Ciresi has consistently focused on operational improvements that enhance both efficiency and patient care quality.
Transforming Health Care Delivery
Ciresi's prediction aims to bring physician-patient relationships back to the core of health care. Eliminating screen barriers between doctors and patients could address both efficiency crises and human connection deficits plaguing modern medicine.
Around 75% of surveyed doctors stated that reducing documentation burdens could significantly improve their feelings of overwork and burnout. Achieving this goal could help address broader physician shortage crises.
Clinical necessity, technological capability, and economic pressure converge to suggest that Kevin Ciresi's vision of AI handling 75% of documentation tasks by 2026 may be inevitable rather than merely possible. Whether this transformation succeeds depends on how quickly healthcare organizations can adapt while maintaining the quality and safety standards that patients deserve.
The future of medical practice may depend on successfully navigating this transition, transforming documentation from a burden that drives physicians away from medicine into an invisible process that allows for complete focus on what drew them to healthcare: caring for patients. Ciresi continues to share perspectives on operational excellence and the future of healthcare delivery through his professional network.
