Abstract

Background: Administrative workload has emerged as a major contributor to clinician time pressure, burnout, and diminished patient experience across European healthcare systems. While digitalisation has expanded documentation requirements, its impact on clinical practice and care quality remains insufficiently quantified at scale. Concurrently, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have renewed interest in technological approaches to reduce administrative burden.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of more than 1,000 clinicians working across primary, secondary, and private care settings, and over 5,000 adult patients, in five European countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden). The study assessed time spent on clinical documentation, perceived effects on care quality and wellbeing, experiences during clinical encounters, and attitudes toward the use of AI-powered documentation tools.

Results: Across all countries, clinicians reported substantial administrative burden, with 65% spending more than one hour per day on documentation and 19% exceeding two hours. Eighty-two percent stated that administrative tasks reduced time available for patient care, and 57% reported a negative impact on the quality of clinician–patient interactions. One in three clinicians reported symptoms consistent with burnout attributable to administrative workload. From the patient perspective, 70% reported divided clinician attention between screens and conversation during visits, and approximately one quarter identified errors in their medical records. Despite these challenges, both clinicians and patients expressed strong support for AI-enabled documentation: 85% of clinicians believed such tools would be beneficial, primarily through time savings and reduced stress, while 83% of patients were comfortable with clinicians using AI, provided that data privacy and security are ensured.

Conclusions: Administrative documentation represents a significant and system-wide constraint on clinical time, clinician wellbeing, and patient experience across European healthcare. The findings indicate broad readiness among clinicians and patients for responsibly deployed AI documentation tools that reduce administrative workload and restore focus to direct patient care. Successful adoption will depend on trust, regulatory alignment, data security, and seamless integration into existing clinical workflows.