Ontario Primary Care Is Drowning in Admin Work: What the Evidence Says

Administrative burden in Ontario primary care is often discussed as an individual clinician problem. Work harder. Stay later. Catch up after hours.

But the evidence tells a different story.

This is a system-level issue, affecting capacity, continuity of care, clinician sustainability, and patient experience across the province. Recent evaluations from OntarioMD and early results from Canada Health Infoway help put real numbers behind what clinicians have been feeling for years.

The reality of administrative burden in Ontario

Documentation has quietly become one of the biggest constraints on primary and community-based care.

Clinicians report spending significant portions of each visit documenting, then finishing notes after hours to keep up. Over time, this shows up as:

• Reduced appointment capacity
• Increased after-hours work
• Higher cognitive load during visits
• Rising burnout across care teams

OntarioMD’s evaluation of AI scribes found an average ~70% reduction in documentation time during patient encounters, a signal that documentation burden is not just heavy, but addressable at the system level.

When documentation pressure is reduced during the visit, it doesn’t just save minutes. It changes how clinicians experience their workday and how care is delivered.

What Ontario learned from evaluating AI scribes

OntarioMD’s evaluation focused on real-world use in Ontario care settings, not theoretical productivity gains. 

Rather than asking whether AI scribes could save time in principle, the evaluation examined what actually changed in day-to-day clinical work. The findings point to three consistent outcomes:

• Less time spent documenting during patient encounters
• Reduced after-hours charting
• Improved clinician experience and cognitive load

Similarly, early results from Canada Health Infoway’s AI Scribe Program reinforce these findings:

• 94% of clinicians report that AI scribes save them time
• 89% report reduced administrative workload
• 85% report lower cognitive burden
• 93% feel more present with patients

Presence, in particular, stands out. When clinicians are not mentally tracking what needs to be documented next, they can focus fully on the patient in front of them. That shift has implications far beyond efficiency.

Why “presence” is not a soft outcome

Patient presence is often framed as a qualitative benefit. In practice, it directly affects trust, communication, and care quality.

Clinicians describe being able to:

• Maintain eye contact
• Listen without interruption
• Respond more thoughtfully in complex or sensitive conversations

In community health settings, mental health care, and chronic disease management, presence is foundational. The Infoway finding that 93% of clinicians felt more present is not a nice-to-have. It’s a core indicator of care quality and sustainability.

What healthcare leaders should evaluate when considering AI scribes

As AI scribes become more common, the question is no longer whether they can save time, but whether they actually support sustainable care in real clinical environments.

Based on Ontario evidence and frontline experience, four evaluation criteria consistently matter.

1. Integration into real clinical workflows

Time savings only materialise when tools fit naturally into existing workflows.

Leaders should look for solutions that integrate cleanly with the systems clinicians already use, reducing context switching and manual work. Poor integration shifts burden rather than removing it.

In practice, integration affects:

• How quickly teams adopt the tool
• Whether documentation stays accurate and complete
• How much cognitive effort remains during the visit

2. Note quality and customisation

Documentation is not one-size-fits-all. High-quality AI scribes must support:

• Specialty-specific workflows
• Custom templates and formats
• Clinician control over how notes are structured

Without this, clinicians spend time editing or correcting notes, eroding the very gains AI scribes promise. Ontario’s evaluations reinforce that quality and usability matter as much as raw time savings.

3. Forms and structured documentation

Much of administrative burden comes from structured documentation outside the clinical note itself.

Forms, referrals, and repetitive data entry add layers of work that compound over time. Solutions that support structured documentation alongside scribing address a broader slice of the problem and deliver more meaningful capacity recovery.

4. Onboarding and real-world support

Even the best technology fails without proper onboarding.

Ontario care environments are diverse, and successful adoption depends on:

• Guided onboarding
• Training that reflects real workflows
• Ongoing support as teams scale usage

Onboarding is not an implementation detail. It’s a determinant of whether time savings actually show up in practice.

What leaders can do next

OntarioMD and Canada Health Infoway have helped move the conversation from hype to evidence.

For healthcare leaders, the next step is not rushing adoption, but asking better questions:

• Does this solution fit our workflows today?
• Will it reduce cognitive load during the visit, not just after?
• Can our teams adopt it quickly and sustainably?
• Does it support presence, not just productivity?

Administrative burden will not be solved by asking clinicians to do more with less. It requires system-level choices grounded in evidence, usability, and long-term sustainability.

Ontario now has the data. The opportunity is to act on it thoughtfully.

Where Tali fits into this evidence

Ontario’s evaluations show that AI scribes can make a meaningful difference when they are designed for real clinical workflows, not theoretical efficiency.

Tali is one of the AI scribes evaluated through OntarioMD and Canada Health Infoway, and these findings reflect what we continue to learn alongside clinicians across Ontario: reducing documentation burden is about more than speed. It’s about integration, quality, and protecting the human side of care.

As adoption grows, evidence-led solutions will be critical to supporting clinicians today and sustaining care systems over the long term.

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