In order to help family physicians put patients before paperwork, Ontario is proposing changes that, if passed, would not longer allow bosses to require a sick note from a doctor for the provincially protected three-days of sick leave workers are entitled to.

 

 

In addition, Ontario’s expanding a program to more than 150 primary care providers that safely uses artificial intelligence to automatically summarize or transcribe conversations with patients who consent into e-medical notes.

The government’s also proposing to digitize more referral and consultation forms, as well as improving eForms platform.

The president of the Ontario Medical Association welcomes the announcement.

Dr. Andrew Park says doctors are currently spending nearly as much time in front of a computer as they do with patients.

He adds physicians spend, on average, 19-hours weekly on administrative chores.

”It keeps them from patients visits or a healthy work-life balance, or in most cases, both.”