General Surgery Spotlight — How Dr. Rachel Hennessey Streamlined Chart Prep and Reduced Dictation with Empathia AI
Clinic Snapshot
Provider Name: Dr. Rachel Hennessey, MD, FRCSC
Specialty: General Surgery
Clinic Name: Vancouver General Hospital (VGH)
Clinic Size: Hospital-based practice with residents
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Care Setting: Hybrid – Acute Care and Elective Surgery Clinic
Team Setup: Attending surgeon with resident support
Common Note Types: Consultation, preoperative, and follow-up notes
Background
Dr. Rachel Hennessey is a general surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital (VCH), managing both acute care and elective surgical clinics.
She was referred to Empathia AI by her colleague, Dr. Armond at St. Paul’s Hospital, after trying another AI scribe that didn’t meet her workflow needs.
Her practice includes two main workflows:
Acute Care — Managed primarily by residents; Dr. Hennessey occasionally dictates consults on her phone.
Elective Clinic — Reviews new referrals, books surgeries, and prepares detailed consult notes in Plexia EMR.
“I tried another AI scribe before, but it just didn’t fit how I work. I wanted something that adapts better to both my clinic and hospital settings.”
Challenges Before Empathia AI
Heavy dictation load: Most consult notes required manual dictation before and after visits.
Fax-based referrals: New patient information was received via fax and manually summarized.
Rigid templates: Limited flexibility in existing Plexia templates for repeated conditions.
“I see 5–6 common issues repeatedly — it would help if the template could just insert my standard impression and plan.”
How Empathia AI Fits Into the Workflow
The Discovery
Dr. Hennessey joined Empathia after hearing positive feedback from a colleague. Her goal was to cut down dictation time, help chart prep, improve template consistency, and simplify how faxes and consult notes are handled across Plexia.
Key Features Used
Smart Summary: Converts referral faxes into concise pre-visit summaries.
“Being able to prechart on the portal and record the visit on my phone is really convenient.”
Macros: Quickly insert pre-written impressions and plans.
Plexia Integration: Copy formatted notes directly into the EMR.
Mobile App and Telemed: Record in-room audio and sync with the Empathia portal for real-time note generation.
“It is really convenient that the caller ID showed my office number — that small detail make teleconsults better.”
Workflow Adaptation
Before Visit:
Upload referral faxes and labs into Empathia.
Smart Summary drafts patient background for review automatically.
During Visit:
Start encounter in Empathia app or browser.
Record or dictate consult discussion.
After Visit:
Empathia generates a complete consult note.
Copy directly into Plexia with formatting intact.
“It’s great that I can review referral faxes ahead of time, then just record the consult during the visit — that’s exactly what I need.”
Implementation
Empathia was set up to mirror Dr. Hennessey’s two distinct workflows:
Acute care — Residents use dictation via mobile for consults.
Elective clinic — Dr. Hennessey precharts with Smart Summary and custom templates.
She also enabled verbal consent documentation, fax scanning, and template customization for common conditions (hernia, gallbladder, colon cancer, etc.).
“The macros make it easy to keep my usual language while still automating most of the note.”
The Impact
Since adopting Empathia, Dr. Hennessey has reduced her reliance on full dictations and improved the efficiency of her consult documentation.
Pre-visit summaries save time reviewing new patient referrals.
Templates and macros preserve her preferred phrasing while reducing typing.
Mobile and desktop sync allows flexibility across clinic and hospital use.
Cleaner consult notes with consistent formatting for Plexia.
“It’s a lot smoother now — I can review, record, and finalize the note without going back and forth.”
Results Table
Metric | Before Empathia AI | After Empathia AI |
|---|---|---|
Dictation Time | 10–15 minutes per note | 3–5 minutes with Smart Summary |
Pre-Visit Review | Manual fax summaries | AI-generated summaries |
Note Consistency | Depended on manual edits | Standardized consult templates |
Physician Satisfaction | Moderate | “Much smoother and more efficient.” |
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