Maintain medical records
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
This is the most automatable shape of work there is, and also the shape that most needs a live connection to the system the record lives in. Without that connection an agent can prepare the entry but cannot file it.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Recording, documentation and administration |
| Jobs that do it | 15 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Documenting/Recording Information (4.A.3.b.6) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 15 occupations that perform it.
- Record patient information, such as radiation doses administered, in patient records.
- Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
- Record and maintain patient information, such as vital signs, eating habits, behavior, progress notes, treatments, or discharge plans.
- Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records.
- Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.
- Record treatment given and equipment used.
- Maintain treatment records.
- Record treatment information in patient records.
- Set up and maintain medical files and databases, including records such as x-ray, lab, and procedure reports, medical histories, diagnostic workups, admission and discharge summaries, and clinical resumes.
- Perform clerical tasks, such as filing, compiling and maintaining prescription records, or composing letters.
- Enter patient, specimen, insurance, or billing information into computer.
- Document clients' progress toward meeting established treatment objectives.
- Sort and file correspondence and perform miscellaneous clerical duties, such as answering correspondence and writing reports.
- Prepare invoices, reports, memos, letters, financial statements, and other documents, using word processing, spreadsheet, database, or presentation software.
- Maintain medical records, technical library, or correspondence files.
- Complete administrative tasks, such as entering orders into computer, answering telephone calls, or maintaining medical or facility information.
- Schedule appointments, prepare bills and receive payment for dental services, complete insurance forms, and maintain records, manually or using computer.
- Receive patients, schedule appointments, and maintain patient records.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for recording, documentation and administration, and what it costs.
The work is not writing the record, it is filing it where the record lives. Make reaches most of those systems from $9 a month, which is the cheapest honest start; Composio is for when you are writing the agent yourself.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
15 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Bill and Account Collectors
- Dental Assistants
- Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
- Home Health Aides
- Massage Therapists
- Medical Dosimetrists
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Medical Transcriptionists
- Occupational Therapy Aides
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Pharmacy Aides
- Phlebotomists
- Physical Therapist Aides
- Psychiatric Aides
- Speech-Language Pathology Assistants
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Maintain health or medical records”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Record patient medical histories | 57 |
| Maintain medical facility records | 17 |
| Record vital statistics or other health information | 10 |
| Maintain client records | 8 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.