Eliminating Clinical Burnout: Transforming a Pharmacist's Patient Volume and Work-Life Balance

About

JoAnna Dougherty and her team—mostly comprised of pharmacists, fellow pharmacists, and pharmacy interns—specialize in clinical patient interaction, focusing on medication management, lab review (e.g., kidney function, liver function), and chronic care management (CCM). She often sees patients in person after their appointments with a doctor. This specialized, high-touch role involves thirty to forty-minute conversations that are critical to patient health.

The challenge? The intensive clinical focus meant documentation was a massive burden.

The problem

From Clinical Care to Carpal Tunnel

As a clinical pharmacist, JoAnna's time is best spent with the patient, discussing lab work, side effects, and care gaps. However, prior to CareCo, documentation was dominating her day.

• Massive Time Sink: JoAnna was spending close to 40—45 minutes typing per patient. This meant nearly half her day was spent on typing, not patient care.

• Work-Life Imbalance: To manage her workload, JoAnna often had to go home and work after hours, staying up until 8, 9, or 10 PM typing notes. She was also spending time on Sundays uploading patient vitals.

• Physical Strain: The constant manual documentation contributed to horrible carpal tunnel.

• Risk of Missing Information: Even with templates and rigorous effort, critical details were sometimes missed in manual notes.

“I was spending more time typing and less time with patients than I am now ... I cannot tell you how many, like, hours I would stay up all night just, like, scrubbing patient charts or working on the weekends.”

The solution

AI that Eliminates Typing and Elevates Quality

JoAnna implemented CareCo to capture every in-person and phone interaction. The AI captures the entire conversation, generating a full, accurate note, allowing the pharmacist to be present with the patient.

• Massive Time Savings: Documentation time per patient dropped from 40—45 minutes to just 10—15 minutes.

• Focus on the Patient: JoAnna can now trust CareCo and only has to “read through the note, copy and paste it, and type a few other things in”.

• Superior Accuracy: JoAnna notes that CareCo often catches things she missed, leading to notes that are “much higher quality”.

“[the notes] are much higher quality... And there are some things that, I didn't necessarily catch that CareCo did. I'm like, oh, yeah. I do remember, like in the back of my head that that's what they said or something. And I wouldn't have necessarily put it in my note if I had been writing it out myself.”

The results

Double the Capacity, No More Overtime

With the documentation burden lifted, JoAnna was able to transform her daily capacity and reclaim her personal time.

• Patient Capacity Doubled: Before, she typically saw 4—5 patients a day. Now, she can handle 7—9 in-person patients and still manage critical alerts and follow-up calls.

• Work-Life Balance Restored: JoAnna can now leave at 5:00 PM without having to do work at home. The need to scrub charts and do after-hours work is drastically reduced.

“It's probably twice the amount of people, if not more than that, that I'm able to make a difference ... I used to have to go home and work for hours.”

Employee experience

From Overwhelmed to Empowered

For Axil Health's clinical team, CareCo wasn't just a productivity tool; it was a fundamental shift in work-life balance and job satisfaction. The burden of heavy manual documentation was replaced with the ability to focus entirely on patient care.

• A “Life-Changing” Tool: JoAnna Dougherty states that she would be “very, very, very sad” if CareCo was taken away from her.

• Focusing on the Care: By eliminating manual documentation, JoAnna can dedicate her time to what matters: providing high-level clinical care.

• Unanimous Approval: The sentiment is shared across the team, with JoAnna enthusiastically agreeing that “everybody” finds CareCo amazing and perfect.