ChatGPT for Patients, ‘Perks’ of Being an Employed Physician

Erik Sunset: [00:00:00] This is the DocBuddy journal. I’m your host, Erik Sunset. This episode is being recorded on Wednesday, August 30th, 2023.

I want to wish everybody. One maybe final happy national ASC month for the year. This is certainly going to be the last episode that re we record during national ASC month. So everybody that’s still celebrating. We hope it’s a joyous one. Soak it up. Cause it’s going to be another 11 months until we’re ready for the next one. As part of doc, buddy celebrations, we had a couple of really great ASC experts on the show. The prior two episodes, starting with more cash, who is the VP of clinical strategies, that HST pathways, she shared her expertise on what the right technology can do for your surgery center. Then we follow that up with a guest appearance from Emily Spooner. Who’s based down here near me. She’s in Broward county, Florida, Fort Lauderdale. I’m based in Miami. So just a hop, [00:01:00] skip, and a jump down. I 95 for her. We had Emily on episode 34 to give her take on the right technology. In the surgery center, what that can do for your workflows, what that can do for surgeon satisfaction, as well as patient outcomes. And she also provided a few gems around being able to negotiate the price of your supplies.

So If you haven’t listened to these yet i highly recommend that you do as our prior two episodes in the catalog And there’s actually four places now where you can either watch or listen to the DocBuddy journal The episode or the Maura mark, the first DocBuddy journal being put on to video That means it’s on youtube Great be sure you’re subscribed there if you’re a youtube kind of a person still available on apple pods still available on spotify And we are very much available at any given time on docbuddy.com. To get to the podcasts on DocBuddy.com. I’ll. Once you towards our blog page if you want to watch [00:02:00] them if you want to just listen we have a player on DocBuddy.com that holds all of our podcasts or just listen to them wherever you normally listen to them What would be the way. So, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you either watch or listen to both of those episodes. There’s a lot of value for our folks in ASCs and. Really there’s a lot of value, even if you’re not in an ASC, if you’re at the clinic or if you’re at the hospital or could you manage a home health type of organization? The bottom line is the right technology will go a long way for you. And you heard that rights because we’re now up to four places where you can either watch or listen to the DocBuddy journal. If you’re a video feed type of person, check us out on YouTube. Get yourself subscribed there. You can also watch our videos on doc budding.com/blog. All of our blog posts for podcasts that have video have video embedded right there. You’re still able to listen to us on apple pods on Spotify. We also have a podcast player. So like an audio only podcast player [00:03:00] on doc, bunny.com. You can find the podcast page by hovering over resources. So, hopefully it’s not too big of a disappointment, but this is a man in the arena type of episode. No guest today, we will be joined by a guest nest next week. We’ll keep you in suspense though. You’ll have to wait and see, hopefully you’re subscribed. So you get the notification that there is a new DocBuddy journal available depending on wherever you like to either watch or listen. And with that. Let’s discuss op note really briefly. This episode, because it is the man in the arena today. This episode is brought to you by our oppnet solution. So for those who aren’t familiar, DocBuddy op note is the middle of the Venn diagram where the edges are had. The surgeon wants to do their operative reports. And then how everybody else at the facility, that’s a stakeholder to that opera port wants them to be done. And the reason that doc would he op note is in the middle of this Venn diagram, is [00:04:00] because it gives the surgeon what they want, which is dictation. They love that workflow. We know transcription is still huge in the marketplace. But it gives not only the surgeon, but the rest of the facility, a truly digital outcome. And that’s unlike with what you see with transcription. That’s unlike what you see on the either desktop-based voice recognition programs, or even the EHR. That those ended up not being the surgeon’s favorite because they’re tied to the desk, but doc, but he op note, you have total mobility, you have the workflow that surgeons like, and then you get that totally digital outcome because of it.

So for the rest of the episode, we’ve got a couple of headlines that are noteworthy over the summer. If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ll have heard quite a bit about AI, about chat GBT and EA jars actually had a great episode with Erica Palmer, also of HST a notoriety, the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI in healthcare wanted to share a [00:05:00] little bit of the good with you because as chat GBT gains broader and broader. Adoption as more and more folks look to AI to ease the load, not only on physicians, but on patients. We’re starting to see some really cool things. Enter the market. And this first headline is brought to you from our friends at Becker’s ASC. So thank you for a little bit of media to share here. The headline is the chat. GPT can eliminate jargon and medical forms. Thus, making them easier to understand and quicker to read for patients.

That when you look at a standard medical form, they can be complicated. They can be filled with jargon and it can make them difficult for the patient to understand. And especially, so because you’re putting these forms in front of people that are already in a stressful moment and that can relate over the summer, back in June, had an appendix taken out. Yeah, you don’t plan on that type of thing happening, but. Sure it can [00:06:00] happen. Anyway, so quick aside there it’s not a whole lot of fun to be going into the operating room or to be thinking about going into the operating room. He gets stuck with some forms. Hey, read these over, fill them out and give them back to us when you’re done. So that’s not great to be in that that mental state and need to comprehend forms. So can chat GPT help kind of translate some of this. Apparently the answer is yes. Researchers from Providence, Rhode Island based lifespan and Somerville, Massachusetts based mass general, Brigham fed 15 surgical consent forms from teaching hospitals across the country. Into the AI chat bot. Chad GPT and asked it to convert them to the average Americans reading level. If you’re keeping up with the headlines, unfortunately the average American’s reading level, isn’t all that great. These days. But after running these forms through the language bots, The forms have fewer characters, less [00:07:00] words, and it actually lowered reading time from about three and a half minutes down to two and a half minutes. So shaved just about a minute off of the total time. Including a reduction in passive voice, which if you’re any type of an APA style expert you’ll know, passive voice has a very specific place in the written word and generally using it in a form isn’t ideal.

A quick quote from the lead researcher, Dr. Roohi Ali MD. Who’s a neurosurgery resident at Rhode Island hospital. His hope is that this makes it, so the consent forms read less like terms and condition statements, and more like how they should read for someone who’s entrusting their life in doctor’s hands.

And what’s not to like about that. You’re taking a, maybe a somewhat complicated form and you’re making it easier to understand that certainly will go a long ways towards increasing patient comprehension of what they’re actually asking to be signed. Reduces [00:08:00] confusion reduces any irritation and having to actually sign that form. And hopefully that more relaxed mental state can contribute to a better outcome for the patients.

Now to put this into production as any sort of a healthcare facility. Be an inpatient or outpatient at the ASC. Obviously you’re going to need to get legal and compliance involved to be sure that Chad GPT didn’t spit out anything ridiculous that it didn’t. Wipe away any of your terms and conditions from the form, right? Like. Unfortunately there’s liability at play here. But I think this avenue of using these LLMs, the large language models, Chad GBT is one of them, obviously using the LLMs to make things easier for patients seems like the quickest road to gains and efficiency to me. And the reason for that is like we just said, you’re going to need to get legal and compliance involved because somebody needs to double check it’s work. When [00:09:00] we talk about putting chat GPT into an EHR. Who’s going to be the one checking its work.

Are you going to be asking the patient who really doesn’t have a great understanding of that EHR output to review their own note? Now are you going to be asking? Ma to do so well. No, they’re more than likely capable. But they’re not the doctor. They’re not the rendering or overseeing physician. So then who’s going to have to double check its output while you’re going to be asking that already burned out physician to double-check that whatever you just asked chat GPT to put into the chart. To be sure that it’s correct to be sure that it contributes to that patient’s positive outcome. Then there are any type of safety issues. Drug, counter indications is drug, even on the patient’s formulary. And there’s plenty, depending on your place of service. You’re going to be relying on that physician to both enter data and then double check it, at least in my estimation. And that’s something that they [00:10:00] say they being the physicians that they don’t want to do, they’re already burned out because of the technology they have to use. So you’re going to ask them to do even more with the technology that they don’t want to use. I don’t really see that happening.

But progress marches on technology marches on, I hope to be proven wrong because anything we can do, you know, this is a core tenant of doc, buddy. Anything we can do to make the physicians. They easier to get them away from feeling like their chains to their workstation or to their computer, that they can’t leave their laptop alone for more than five minutes at a time. Would be a good thing. So we will see.

And that’s actually kind of a nice segue to our second of two headlines. So a little bit shorter show this week. I think we’ll end up with that’s. Okay. It’s a holiday week. We’ve got labor day coming up on Monday. I think everybody’s plans. Hopefully everybody has some really great plans for labor day. And I bet you’re already thinking about them. If you do. One other headline shared from Becker’s [00:11:00] ASC. They do such a good job collecting news. It’s it’s easy just to go to one spot and find out everything you need to know. But they flashed an article into my inbox, the best parts about being an employed physician. Clicked it, couple of things caught my eye. And if you’ve been in healthcare long enough, you know, there’s a pendulum that kind of swings back and forth from independent physicians to employed physicians. Think we’re starting to see that pendulum sort of swing towards the employed side. Even further to the employment side, I guess I should say. So our I’ll I’ll paraphrase some of the talking points here. That for positions choosing whether to be employed or self-employed can be one of the biggest decisions they make during their careers. While there are pros and cons to both options. Here’s what employed physicians like most about their work setup. And this is actually according to Medscape’s 2023 employed physicians report, which they published about a week ago.

Top reason physicians like being employed. [00:12:00] They don’t have to run a business. Number two stable income. About half of respondents said stable income was one of their favorite things about being employed. Employer pays for malpractice insurance. I get that. We’re a necessary evil insurances. Isn’t it. Work-life balance. That they get to work with large teams and staff that they get to spend less time on rules and regulations. And company management weighing in at the bottom. Now there’s certainly some perks to being an employed physician. Like the study shows you don’t have to run a business and you have essentially a guaranteed income or at least a more stable income than running your own practice. But the other side of this coin. The other side of this coin is that when you go as a physician from independence to employments, You’re now playing into some of the most direct factors that correlate with your burnout. And that’s not just me sitting on the sidelines as a vendor, you know, sitting here as your VP of marketing doc, [00:13:00] but he telling you that. That’s not physicians respond to polls. When surveys and polls come out and the respondents are physicians and they are asked, what is driving your burnout? Why are you feeling so burned out? Well, we know technology is one of the top reasons, bad technology that is. But the rest of the reasons that physicians feel burned out, revolve around a lack of autonomy. So there’s certainly the perks to becoming an employed physician, but you know, when you remove technology from the equation of what is driving physician burnout, what is driving so many physicians to retire early? What is keeping. Students out of medical schools to become physicians. They’re all related to lack of autonomy. And workload. So I find it interesting that there’s reporting around the perks around being an employed physician. Even though that is one of the primary drivers for burnout, being that lack of autonomy, being a cog and a machine, not having any say over your, your care [00:14:00] protocols. So that runs a little bit counter to me. I certainly understand the finances side of things, especially not wanting to pay malpractice insurance. I know those are big checks that have to be written every month. If you are owning your own practice. But and this isn’t even self-serving, you know, DocBuddy is happy to work with major companies, happy to work with big hospital corporations and we do. But if you’ve got the nose for business as a physician, I think you give yourself a huge edge over your colleagues that either are running to be employed or that just don’t want to put up with the slightly more, slightly higher hurdles to clear as a private practice owner. Versus an employed physician.

I think you’re setting yourself up for longer-term success, as long as you can navigate the burnout factor. So as long as you can navigate selecting the right technology to use at your practice, and there’s really great options out there. And especially if you’re bought into the implementation and training [00:15:00] portion, once you select one of these technologies, And obviously on the practice side because of MACRA MIPS, if you’re seeing any Medicare patients, you have to have a certify the HR at this point, unless you’re just okay with the reimbursement reduction. Some folks are but if you can select the right technology, if you can not let it be a burden or use that buddy to lessen your administrative load to do. And then you can get the rate office manager, the right billing team, heck even started thinking about outsourcing your revenue cycle to one of the reputable vendors out there. You know again, which of which there are many. I think you’re giving yourself a leg up owning your own practice versus becoming employed. Now there’s caveats to all of this. I’m not your financial planner and I don’t want to be. But there are plenty of pros and cons on each, but I think for the overall health of the system, More physicians and private practice would be preferable as a healthcare consumer. I’m not speaking about what DocBuddy thinks here, kind of already addressed that. But as a healthcare [00:16:00] consumer, you want more private practices than you want employed physicians that are part of the local hospital. A group. Anyway, just my 2 cents there.

So with that, we’re going to put a bow on this episode as always. Thank you for listening to the doc, buddy journal, to learn more about DocBuddy and all of the solutions that help you minimize provider burnout. If not eliminated outright and max. Amines efficiency. We want you to visit DocBuddy.com. We’ll set up an intro call for you. Get a demo put together for you. It’s all. All very easy to work with here. And in closing once again, be sure you’re subscribed on apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and you can always watch us on our site. Doc, buddy.com. You’ve also got the option to follow us on LinkedIn, where we post the juiciest tastiest nuggets from our podcasts for your short form consumption. Until next time. And once again, thanks on behalf of the entire DocBuddy team. I’m Erik [00:17:00] Sunset. We’ll talk to you after labor day.