REGINA — A new report shows that Saskatchewan is among the worst culprits in the country for time spent by physicians on what the document calls “administrative burden.”
Compiled by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), Losing Doctors to Desk Work says Saskatchewan physicians spend an average of 10.7 hours per week filling out insurance forms, referrals, sick time requests and other paperwork, leaving it tied with Ontario and Alberta for the most in the country.
According to the CMA, it amounts to 20 million hours of unnecessary paperwork for medical doctors each year.
The report shows Saskatchewan had 2,709 physicians in 2024, and they worked a combined 1,277,387 administrative hours. “Unnecessary” administrative hours amounted to 568,012, or 58 per cent. The report added the average physician worked 49.8 hours per week.
A total of 1,924 of 99,555 physicians from across the country participated in the survey.
Health-care access a top priority
Brianna Solberg, the director of legislative affairs for the Prairies and Northern Canada with the CFIB, said the organization has taken an interest because all business owners rely on timely health care for themselves and their employees.
“Two-thirds of our small business members say improving access to health care is one of their top priorities. A healthier system means fewer sick days and faster returns to work, and doctors themselves are business owners who don’t want to spend more time on paperwork than serving their clients,” Solberg said.
The CFIB has tackled similar reports in the past few years. The first iteration of the administrative burden report came out in 2023, and the CFIB continues to study the problem because, Solberg said, it isn’t getting better.
Previous editions looked at the potential benefits of easing the administrative burden by 10 per cent.
Solberg acknowledges Saskatchewan’s health-care system is under real strain, and people who have been looking for a physician, or have been trying to book an appointment with their own family doctor, know how difficult it can be — in part because existing physicians are buried in paperwork.
“Nearly half of it is unnecessary, and that means it’s work that could be done by somebody other than a doctor, or it’s repetitive or duplicative, or we need to look at AI, maybe, to help remove some of the duplication and inconsistency in these forms,” she said.
Solberg suggested having a governing body to look at the different types of administrative burden and potential solutions.
“The first thing would be to look at what forms don’t require a medical degree to fill out, and therefore could be filled out by someone other than the physician,” she said.
Twenty per cent of a physician’s workweek
Saskatchewan Medical Association president Dr. Pamela Arnold said there weren’t any surprises in the report. She added the SMA is quite aware of the cost of “administrative burden” on physicians and the role it plays in their lives, but it was good to have it documented.
If the average physician works 50 hours a week, she said roughly 20 per cent of that time is spent on administrative tasks, which is often completed after hours, taking away from time spent with families and hindering work-life balance. It also reduces time with patients and impacts wait times. She also noted administrative work is poorly compensated.
“If we can work on eliminating one of those unnecessary administrative tasks, we can … increase the number of patients physicians see,” Arnold said.
The biggest source of red tape, she said, is the lack of “interoperability” in systems and patient care records.
“I think that most patients assume, and people assume, that when they go to see a physician or they go to a hospital, that all of the data that’s put in one place can be seen easily across all of the platforms,” Arnold said.
While physicians have access to much of the information, she added it requires multiple sign-ins to multiple systems.
“For example, if you’ve gone to the emergency department and you’ve had lab testing done, and you’ve been sent to a specialist and had different tests done, say an X-ray or a CT scan, you will have to go into the eHealth program, and then click on multiple different areas to see results.”
The eHealth program is not necessarily integrated into a patient care record, she said.
“It requires a lot of sign-ins, a lot of clicking, a lot of work to see what has been done in a single instance and to be up to date,” Arnold said.
The SMA hopes to work toward solutions with better interoperability between systems and improved communication between electronic medical records and eHealth platforms.
Saskatchewan physicians also complete many forms for insurers, and billing processes create significant administrative burden when claims are rejected.
Reducing sick notes
Eliminating sick notes for minor illnesses would also help, Arnold said, noting the idea is supported by more than half of Saskatchewan physicians.
“There are other provinces in the country that have gotten rid of the need for sick notes for minor illnesses, and that is one simple solution that would lead to a slight decrease of administrative burden.”
Most of these issues are not unique to Saskatchewan, she said, and there is no silver bullet. The main answer is moving toward a family physician-led, team-based system of care in a patient medical home model, where charts are housed in one place and team members share responsibilities.
SHA response
In an email to SaskToday, Dale Hunter, senior media relations consultant with the Ministry of Health, said steps are being taken to reduce administrative burden, alleviate workload and create capacity for direct patient care.
“Amendments to The Saskatchewan Employment Act came into force on January 1 to limit when employers can request sick notes,” Hunter said. “The change restricts employers from asking for a sick note unless an employee has been away for five consecutive working days.”
Hunter also said more than 330 primary care providers in Saskatchewan have signed up for the Infoway AI Scribe Pilot Program, supported by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), SMA and eHealth Saskatchewan.
Canada Health Infoway has shortlisted 10 AI Scribe vendors that meet national standards, enabling accelerated evaluation.
The SHA is also developing an artificial intelligence acceptable-use policy to support responsible AI adoption while safeguarding personal health information.
“The Ministry of Health continues to work with health system partners to identify improvements through strategic use of technology,” Hunter said.
Arnold added she hears from medical residents that when deciding where to practise, better-integrated electronic medical records and AI-supported systems are a major factor.
“They are looking toward better access in the system, better EMRs, better technology and better use of AI when choosing where to practise,” she said.
The full copy of the report can be found here.
