Your doctor's AI notetaker may be making things up, Ontario audit finds

[3catwoman3]

10. This does not surprise me in the least.

I retired 5 years ago, after 45 years as a peds NP. My office started electronic health records (EHR) in 2013, and it changed a job I loved into a job that I no longer loved, and some days even hated.

EHR has great potential for built in errors because many providers opt for standard templates that exist within the system, rather than write an individualized note for each patient each time. Preloaded templates exist for most of the common problems a patient would present with, but they are not individualized, and if someone just does a "point-and-click" note there may very well either be things in the note that one did not do, or things missing that you did do.

I once read a chart entry from a pediatrician whose note indicated that a complete neurological exam, including cranial nerves, and inspection of the genitalia had been done on a child with strep throat. Unless there are unusual symptoms, nobody checks cranial nerves and looks at the genitals for strep throat.

This is only one example. I saw lots more. And this was well before AI came on the scene.