How a Plastic Surgeon Standardized Hand Clinic Workflows with Empathia AI
Coastal Plastic Surgery
Richmond , BC, Canada
Doctor
Dr. Robyn Watts
Specialty
Plastic Surgery
It feels like I’m finally documenting the way I already think. Each patient note now builds itself logically — from intake through follow-up — without any double entry.
The challenge
Before Empathia
- Specialty: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery / Hand and Upper Limb
- Clinic Type: Hospital-based and outpatient surgical clinic
- Setting: In-person clinical assessments and minor procedures
- Common Note Types: New hand injury consults, post-op follow-ups, functional assessments, and pre/post-surgical instruction summaries
Every week, Dr. Robyn Watts runs a busy hand clinic, seeing dozens of patients for injuries, nerve repairs, and tendon reconstructions.
Each visit followed a structured but manual workflow — intake form review, pre-assessment checklist, post-surgical evaluation, and patient instructions. Despite clear processes, the administrative workload was heavy.
“Every patient follows a similar flow — intake, checklist, post-op care — but I was repeating the same notes and retyping the same instructions each week. It wasn’t an efficient use of time.”
Templates stored in EMRs were static and couldn’t adapt to changes between pre- and post-surgical visits. Even small variations (e.g., wound healing status, mobility range, or splint details) required manual editing.
This led to documentation fatigue, delayed form completion, and time lost between patient care and surgical preparation.
The Transformation
The Turning Point: Automating Routine Clinical Notes
Dr. Watts joined the Empathia AI and BC Scribe Pilot program after learning how other specialists were using AI-assisted templates to streamline their daily workflows.
The Empathia team worked closely with her to digitize and automate her existing forms and clinical flow — ensuring her templates matched the exact format used by her surgical team and nursing staff.
What Changed
Empathia AI now:
Uses custom intake templates that capture all hand injury details and pre-assessment checklists.
Automatically populates post-surgical instructions customized to each procedure type.
Generates structured consultation notes ready for upload to hospital EMRs.
Allows team sharing so every clinician in her group follows the same standardized template.
“It feels like I’m finally documenting the way I already think. Each patient note now builds itself logically — from intake through follow-up — without any double entry.”
Inside the Workflow: From Intake to Post-Op Summary
Stage | Before Empathia | After Empathia |
|---|---|---|
Intake | Paper-based forms completed by hand | Secure digital intake synced to Empathia |
Pre-Surgical Assessment | Manual checklist scanned into EMR | Smart Form auto-completes from patient intake |
Post-Surgical Notes | Separate document typed from scratch | AI summary generated with wound, mobility, and pain updates |
Patient Instructions | Copied from a Word doc each time | Auto-populated, editable, and sent securely to patient record |
By integrating Empathia Smart Templates, Dr. Watts can now complete an entire hand clinic’s documentation workflow — from intake to discharge — within minutes per patient.
Implementation: Replicable and Scalable
The transition was completed in under a week.
Empathia’s clinical onboarding team mapped her existing forms and checklists into interactive, reusable templates. Dr. Watts then tested the workflow with her weekly hand clinic and shared it with her surgical group to adopt the same standardized process.
The next phase: adapting the same model for her breast reconstruction clinic, using Empathia’s Smart Edit tools for surgical summaries and post-operative care instructions.
Security and Compliance
Empathia AI is approved under the Scribe BC Pilot Program and meets compliance requirements for PHIPA, PIPEDA, and HIPAA.
All recordings, forms, and reports are securely stored on Canadian servers, ensuring full data protection within the BC health system.
After Empathia
Key Improvements
Empathia AI helped Dr. Robyn Watts transform her hand clinic workflow — turning repetitive, manual documentation into a seamless, automated process shared across her surgical team.
Next, her breast clinic will follow the same model, bringing consistent documentation, faster form completion, and improved patient communication across her full surgical practice.
Team-Wide Standardization
All physicians and nurses in Dr. Watts’ group now use the same intake and assessment templates — ensuring uniform, high-quality documentation.
Improved Continuity of Care
Empathia’s Smart Summary function automatically links pre- and post-operative notes, allowing clear tracking of patient progress between visits.
“Now my notes are consistent, legible, and ready to share instantly. It’s made a huge difference for both my team and patients.”
Why It Matters
Plastic and reconstructive surgeons face growing demands for precise, legible, and compliant documentation — particularly across shared surgical clinics.
Empathia gives them the ability to standardize and automate routine charting, ensuring every patient record is accurate, structured, and accessible across the care team.
Get started with Empathia
Start delivering care with less burden！
Key Features Used
Intake Summary
Auto-generates patient history from intake forms
Templates
Customizable templates for common visit types
