With extensive experience in medical technology and a deep understanding of the operational challenges facing healthcare providers, Faisal Zain has a unique perspective on the intersection of innovation and practice management. He joins us to discuss the often-unseen administrative burdens that are straining small medical practices and explores how rethinking workflows and embracing automation can help preserve the heart of community-based care. We’ll touch on the true cost of the “invisible workday,” the frustrating complexities of processes like prior authorizations and quality reporting, and the disproportionate impact these challenges have on smaller clinics. Faisal will share actionable insights on how these practices can reclaim time and energy, allowing them to focus on what matters most: their patients.
Studies show that for every hour of patient care, physicians may spend nearly two additional hours on desk work. Beyond the obvious time drain, how does this “invisible workday” impact a small practice’s financial sustainability, and what are the first signs of burnout you see?
That statistic is staggering, and it’s at the core of the financial strain. Think about it: a small practice’s revenue is generated during that one hour of patient-facing time. The subsequent two hours of desk work—documentation, chasing down reports, data entry—are essentially unbillable overhead. For a small practice without a large administrative team, that time is a direct drain on the bottom line. It’s not a line item on a balance sheet, but it’s a massive, hidden operational cost. The first signs of burnout aren’t always dramatic. It often starts with a sense of lingering frustration, a feeling that you’re constantly fighting the system instead of healing patients. You see it in the exhausted tone during team huddles or the quiet resentment when yet another reporting requirement is announced. It’s a slow erosion of the passion that brought them into medicine in the first place.
Prior authorizations are often a complex, manual process. Could you walk me through the typical steps a small practice must take to secure one, and then explain how targeted automation can specifically address the most frustrating parts of that workflow, like follow-ups and tracking?
Certainly. It’s a journey of a thousand tiny, frustrating steps. First, a staff member has to pull specific clinical data from the EHR for a planned procedure. Then, they navigate to the correct insurance payer’s portal—and each one is different—to manually submit the information. That’s just the beginning. The real grind is the follow-up. Days later, someone has to log back in or, worse, sit on hold on the phone just to check the status. If there’s a denial or a request for more information, the whole cycle starts again. Now, imagine juggling dozens of these across multiple payers. It’s a chaotic, disruptive mess. Targeted automation can transform this. Instead of a person manually checking statuses, an automated system can do it every day and flag only the ones that need attention—the denials or requests. It eliminates the constant, repetitive “checking” that consumes so much time and mental energy, allowing the staff to focus their expertise on solving the actual problems rather than just tracking them.
Many practices invest heavily in regulatory and quality reporting, yet struggle to see a clear return on that effort. How does this perceived disconnect between reporting requirements and improved patient outcomes affect staff morale and daily operations? Please provide a concrete example.
This is a huge driver of cynicism and fatigue in a practice. When clinicians and staff are asked to invest significant time and effort into something, they want to believe it matters. But with much of the required reporting, the connection to better patient care feels abstract at best. For instance, a small practice might spend hours every month meticulously documenting and submitting data for a quality measurement program. They might have to pull staff away from scheduling or patient calls to ensure every field is perfect to avoid submission errors. When they see no corresponding change in their financial stability and the process doesn’t seem to tangibly help the patients sitting in their waiting room, it just feels like bureaucratic busywork. This creates a deep sense of futility, which is incredibly damaging to morale. The team starts to feel like they are serving the requirements, not the patients.
Constantly switching between clinical decision-making and administrative tasks increases cognitive load. Besides burnout, what are the hidden costs of this mental strain, such as a higher risk of errors or declining professional satisfaction? Could you share a common scenario that illustrates this challenge?
The cost of this cognitive load is immense and often underestimated. It’s not just about feeling tired; it’s about a measurable decline in focus and an increased risk of error. A very common scenario is a physician finishing a complex patient visit, where they’ve been deeply focused on diagnosing a nuanced condition. They walk to their office to document the encounter in the EHR, but are immediately interrupted by a staff member with a problem: an urgent prior authorization for a medication was denied. The physician now has to completely switch gears—from a clinical mindset to an administrative one—to navigate a payer’s portal or dictate an appeal letter. When they finally turn back to the patient’s chart, that deep clinical focus is gone. This constant, jarring task-switching fragments their attention, which not only erodes their sense of professional fulfillment but also creates a very real risk that a small but important detail from the patient visit could be missed in the documentation.
An administrative hurdle that is a minor inconvenience for a large health system can be an operational threat to a small practice. Can you detail the specific vulnerabilities small practices face in this regard and outline the first three steps a practice should take to begin redesigning its workflows?
Large systems have built-in shock absorbers that small practices simply lack. They have entire departments for billing, compliance, and prior authorizations. If a key administrative person is out sick or quits, there’s a team to cover the work. In a small practice, that one person might be the only person who knows how to handle a specific payer’s quirks. Their absence can bring a critical workflow to a grinding halt. Similarly, a delayed or denied high-value claim might be a rounding error for a large hospital, but for a small practice, it can directly impact their ability to make payroll that month. They are just so much more financially and operationally fragile.
The first step to address this is to simply identify and measure the friction. For one week, track exactly where time is being lost to manual, repetitive tasks. The second step is to standardize processes based on that data. Create a single, clear workflow for tasks like prior authorizations, rather than having three different people do it three different ways. The third step is to strategically introduce automation to handle the most repetitive parts of that new, standardized workflow, like follow-ups or data entry, freeing your team to manage the exceptions.
What is your forecast for the administrative landscape facing small medical practices over the next five years?
I believe small practices are at a critical crossroads. The administrative demands from payers and regulators are not going to decrease; if anything, they will likely become more complex with the continued shift toward value-based care. Practices that continue to absorb this burden by simply asking their staff to work harder will face a breaking point, leading to increased burnout, physician retirement, and practice consolidation. However, I am also optimistic. The practices that proactively redesign their workflows and thoughtfully embrace automation to handle the administrative noise will not only survive but thrive. They will be more resilient, their staff will be more engaged, and they will successfully reclaim the time and focus needed to do what they do best: build strong, lasting relationships with their patients and communities.
