The American Medical Association estimates that the number of physicians in private practice has dropped 13% in the last decade, largely due to financial pressures and administrative burdens.1 In the face of these economic headwinds, many doctors have decided to sell their practices. The decrease in the number of physicians in private practice is a rising concern because these systems are critical to the well-being of local communities, offering patients a greater choice in care and a setting for personalized patient-provider interaction.
Investing in healthcare technology is a significant decision for private practices, particularly startups. With restricted budgets, the initial investments can heavily impact their future success and sustainability. Therefore, choosing the right technology becomes paramount. These technologies have the potential to streamline operations, improve patient care and drive a strong return on investment.
With the adoption of AI innovations, private practices can not only remain afloat—they can grow and thrive. Digital tools are now available to address some of the most pressing issues independent practices face today, such as time-consuming and profit-consuming administrative tasks and staffing shortages that impact smaller practices in particular. Technologies from eClinicalWorks and healow, such as fax AI assistants, AI medical scribes, AI-powered contact centers and RCM tools, enable private practices to thrive in a competitive healthcare landscape.
Private practice survival is critical for patients
Independent practices increase access to care because they are often located closer to patients’ homes. This is especially crucial in underserved areas, where such practices offer a readily available healthcare option and dedicated physicians who thoroughly understand a patient’s needs, social determinants of health and medical history. Research shows that independent practices often deliver better outcomes for patients than hospitals due to the development of long-standing relationships between providers and their patients.2
Leveraging AI to reduce administrative burdens
A recent survey revealed that 59% of practices spend 5 or more hours per week on documentation, and 62% of practices spend 4 or more hours per day managing calls and appointments.3 Additionally, 59% of practices receive more than 100 faxes per week. The administrative burden of these tasks quickly adds up. For independent practices typically lacking medical staff, the main provider also needs to manage administrative and operational duties, pulling them away from time with patients. Thanks to eClinicalWorks technologies and innovative healow and Sunoh.ai integrations, private practices can let AI handle the administrative workload while physicians can better focus on delivering exceptional patient care.
Sunoh.ai is an AI medical scribe that is changing the game for private practice physicians. It eliminates the need to sit behind computers and take notes in real-time during visits, impacting patient engagement. Sunoh.ai listens in to appointments and takes notes in real-time, preparing clinical documentation for the physician’s review — saving them up to two hours of documentation time daily. The AI medical scribe is EHR-agnostic and is the first AI-powered medical scribe to generate multimodal notes. The multilingual feature, which identifies different languages, dialects and accents, further helps physicians to fully engage during the appointment, focusing exclusively on the patient conversation. Central Virginia Health Services family nurse practitioner, Jill Richmond, explains, “The innovative AI technology allows me to see many more patients now and focus better on patient care. The accurate and timely documentation allows me to easily review and complete work before leaving the practice every day.”4
healow Genie is a first-of-its-kind, fully EHR-integrated AI-powered contact center solution. It provides 24/7/365 support by answering patients’ phone calls and giving them the information they need. Genie doesn’t put patients on hold 
it offers self-service options through natural language technology to answer patients’ frequently asked questions and uses AI to manage appointments, referrals, prescriptions and other needs. Jose Rocha, director of the corporate business office at First Choice Neurology, reiterated, “Integrating healow Genie is like having a 24/7 attendant, saving on overtime and enabling faster processing of important appointments. In 2024, we received about 35,000 calls per month. Genie’s multilingual capabilities will boost our customer service, accommodating our growing call volume without the need for additional staff, reducing overtime and helping us serve more patients effectively.”
Microsoft recently conducted a case study on how the eClinicalWorks AI assistant is helping healthcare providers reduce time spent on paperwork, handling the bulk of the work, and analyzing nearly 2.2 million complex faxes.5 The technology is being leveraged by practices including Rheumatology Associates of Oklahoma (RAO), a leading rheumatology organization, with the practice manager reporting that “with a substantial accuracy rate, the AI assistant is a lot faster than having to look the patient up manually, select the patient’s name, then go to their hub and their documents, to ensure we are not attaching a duplicate image in their chart. Additionally, it helps improve staff productivity, streamline workflows and enhance clinical efficiency.”6
Optimizing revenue cycle management with AI-powered solutions
Streamlining revenue cycle management (RCM) processes is crucial for private practices to ensure payments are completed accurately and efficiently, allowing practices to run smoothly. Traditionally, RCM processes have been outsourced to third parties, who would receive a percentage of the given claim once completed. With eClinicalWorks AI for RCM, private practices can let AI streamline the RCM process.
AI for RCM supports end-to-end billing — including appeals.7 Appeals are a common and unavoidable part of the RCM process, but they no longer need to be strenuous. AI can generate appeal letters and suggest additional documentation, making this task simple and burden-free.
Reimagining operations for private practices with AI solutions
Private practices are a vital component of the broader healthcare ecosystem, and innovative AI solutions like those from eClinicalWorks and healow can help them survive and thrive. eClinicalWorks understands private practices’ unique and crucial role in keeping communities healthy, driving the company to develop and deliver cost-effective, easy-to-adopt and customizable technologies to help these systems remain afloat. These AI-powered innovations have the potential to reimagine the status quo for medical communications, streamlining and automating the day-to-day processes in outpatient management. Leveraging AI can help private practices boost efficiency and save costs, setting them up to thrive financially and ensuring providers have the time to nourish long-standing, impactful relationships with their patients.
References
1. Henry, T. AMA. August 23, 2024. Is private practice collapsing? Congress can help stem the tide. https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/private-practices/private-practice-collapsing-congress-can-help-stem-tide.
2. Rittenhouse, D.R., Bazemore, A.W., Morgan, Z.J, and Peterson, L.E. 2021. One-third of family physicians remain in independently owned practice, 2017–2019. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 34(5): 1033-1034. https://www.jabfm.org/content/34/5/1033.
3. eClinicalWorks. December 11, 2024. AI and the age of intelligence has arrived. https://www.eclinicalworks.com/blog/ai-and-the-age-of-intelligence-has-arrived/.
4. Sunoh.ai. Sunoh.ai enhances work-life balance for the largest FQHC in Virginia. Press release, November 21, 2024. https://sunoh.ai/press-releases/sunoh-ai-medical-scribe-enhances-work-life-balance-for-the-largest-fqhc-in-virginia/.
5. Microsoft. December 11, 2024.eClinicalWorks empowers thousands of practitioners to reduce hours spent on paperwork with Azure AI Document Intelligence. https://www.microsoft.com/en/customers/story/20380-eclinicalworks-azure-ai-services.
6. eClinicalWorks. Leading rheumatology practice reports significant time savings utilizing eClinicalWorks Image AI. Press release, November 14, 2024. https://www.eclinicalworks.com/leading-rheumatology-practice-reports-significant-time-savings-utilizing-eclinicalworks-image-ai/.
7. eClinicalWorks. eClinicalWorks unveils ground-breaking AI-powered products for improved healthcare delivery at the 2024 National Conference. Press release, October 28, 2024. https://www.eclinicalworks.com/eclinicalworks-unveils-ground-breaking-ai-powered-products-for-improved-healthcare-delivery-at-the-2024-national-conference/.
