Ontario’s health minister announced a new program that will use artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce paperwork for doctors. The government will also remove a requirement for employees to provide a doctor’s note when off sick.
The move comes on the heels of the Ford government’s court battle to hide details on how dire the province’s healthcare worker shortage is.
“Our government is launching an innovative program called AI scribe for more than 150 primary care providers that safely uses artificial intelligence to automatically summarize or transcribe conversations with patients who consent into electronic medical notes,” Health Minister Sylvia Jones told reporters during the announcement made on Wednesday.
According to CTV News, officials said patient information will still be protected under the Personal Health Information Protection Act. They also claimed AI scribe can reduce the time doctors spend on after-hours documentation by up to 50 percent.
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) told CTV News that family doctors spend about 19 hours per week on administrative tasks, of which about four hours include writing notes or completing forms.
As for sick notes, the provincial government will prohibit a requirement for employers from mandating employees to provide a doctor’s note when taking “job-protected sick leave.”
Jones said that employers who require reasonable evidence of an illness should accept attestations or declarations instead of written notes.
However, Ontario residents are still only entitled to at least three mandated sick days.
Ontario also wants to replace fax machines and further digitize referral and consultation forms, with officials hoping it will save doctors about 95,000 hours of administrative tasks per year.
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Source: CTV News
