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Lured by promises of time savings and more face-to-face interactions with patients, a growing number of doctors are using artificial intelligence-backed scribes for clinical documentation.
But experts say there’s a hidden cost: the risk of medical malpractice.
As AI scribes move from limited pilots to routine use in exam rooms, the technology can make documentation mistakes that are hard to detect, leading to potential medical errors and malpractice lawsuits as hospitals increase their use, experts say. And clinicians are ultimately on the hook for those mistakes, regardless of whether they used AI to generate notes.
While there are no public malpractice cases tied to AI scribes, “that doesn’t mean there are zero,” said Bill Satterwhite, a practicing physician and licensed attorney who serves as principal of healthcare performance improvement and physician enterprise at Huron Consulting Group. That’s because lawsuits often take a while to work their way through the legal system, especially those dealing with sensitive personal information like medical malpractice.
The risks are increasing, as more than 1 in 4 physicians use AI to document billing codes, medical charts or visit notes, as well as generate chart summaries, according to a survey by the American Medical Association. Another 7 in 10 respondents see opportunities for AI to automate clinical and administrative tasks contributing to burnout, the survey found.