Recent global studies have highlighted that clinical documentation demands are a major contributor to the growing issue of clinician burnout.¹ H.E. Mrs. Mubaraka Ibrahim, acting Chief Information Officer at Emirates Health Service (EHS), the federal health system serving the United Arab Emirates with 17 hospitals and 67 primary health centers distributed across the country, said that EHS physicians were reporting burnout and that, simultaneously, internal analyses of clinical documentation were showing declines in note quality.

“We saw that clinicians were spending too much time in doing the documentation for the patient files — but they were also finding it difficult to ensure their notes were accurate and comprehensive,” she said. “For that reason, we looked into solutions to address these two major challenges.”

These two factors led the federal health system to invest in 3M™ Fluency Direct, a speech-recognition solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI), to both reduce documentation time and improve the accuracy of clinician notes.

After taking a careful, phased implementation approach to deploy the new solution, EHS has seen a remarkable adoption rate across the health service. Dr. Hanan Alraeesi, a neonatal physician and acting Medical Director of EHS’s Khorfakkan Hospital, said that she and her colleagues were impressed with the solution’s “flexibility.”

“The doctors at our hospital all have different experiences, different ages and not everyone is familiar with different applications,” she explained. “What is nice about this AI-powered speech recognition solution is that it is very easy to use, even for those who do not like technology. It also has features that help us make our documentation more accurate in the patient medical record, which helps us avoid potential mistakes or misdiagnoses. It makes documentation much easier.”

The solution’s success can be attributed to 3M’s recommended approach of recruiting physician champions at each facility to take ownership of the deployment, according to

Dr. Yaser Abuhajjaj, a Health Informatics Expert at EHS. The EHS appointed on-site trainers, at all facilities, helped train and guide physicians using the application and installed speech microphones at each workstation, ensuring local knowledge was built in from the start. As a result, the adoption rate rose to 70% systemwide.

“We’ve really seen excitement from our physicians, especially as they work with the functionality, the hands-free navigation and then see how quickly it can adapt to their voices and accents,” he said. “We’ve also done a survey to check physician satisfaction and how the solution is impacting their work. Ninety-four percent of users said it has reduced their documentation time by about 50%. They see improved patient satisfaction. They have improved their productivity. And they have also said it has reduced their burnout.”

The federal health system has always been on the forefront of embracing advanced technologies to help enhance care, according to H.E. Mrs. Mubaraka Ibrahim EHS. Roll out of the solution to the system’s dental clinics and public health centers is forthcoming.

“This has been a very successful project and one that we succeeded in implementing with zero downtime and zero challenges. It’s something we can be proud of,” she noted. “Our goal is to ensure and maintain high rates of adoption so we can continue to enhance the quality of documentation and achieve the highest quality patient care across the health service.”

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Reference

1. Abdul Rahim, H.F., Fendt-Newlin, M., Al-Harahsheh, S.T., and Campbell, J. 2022. Our duty of care: A global call to action to protect the mental health of health and care workers. World Health Organization (WHO). https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/working4health/20221005-wish-duty.pdf?sfvrsn=a021c187_7&download=true.