EHRs were meant to improve team dynamics by increasing transparency between clinicians and patients, reducing physician administrative burden, and improving health care quality with fewer medical errors and less paperwork.¹⁹ Instead, we have seen the rise of physician burnout, correlating with the widespread use of EHRs.²⁰ EHR technology has consistently worsened physician professional satisfaction, with poor intuitive user design, time-consuming data entry, and decreased face-to-face patient care.²¹

As AI spreads across the health care sector, avoiding the errors made with EHRs with be critical. With strategic implementation, AI may overcome these challenges, enhancing team cohesion by reducing administrative burdens and creating more opportunities for clinicians to engage with one another and their patients.

How Can AI Benefit Teaming?

There is no question that AI is going to make its way into the ED; in many departments, AI is already present. For AI to transform how ED teams function, these tools must enhance Edmondson’s key pillars of teaming: workload management, interdisciplinary problem solving, and psychological safety.

AI can assist with clinician workload management by allowing all ED team members to direct more energy in direct patient care. As mentioned, AI has tremendous potential for automating non-teaming tasks such as documentation and data retrieval, and for managing ED workflow processes. These changes may free clinicians to engage in meaningful interactions with patients and among themselves, ultimately improving cross-functional teaming in the ED.

AI’s potential to analyze large amounts of patient data for clinician review will also help teams make high-stakes decisions for patient care using up-to-date information. For instance, mortality predictor tools can help direct resource allocation and monitoring of patients in EDs with limited resources. AI emergency radiology tools can lead to immediate results for high-acuity patients, reducing delay in initiating treatments for acute patients. The transformative effect from AI’s assistance will augment communication within ED teams as they anticipate and prepare for complex tasks and work together directly to address high-acuity cases. This unified, data-supported approach may enhance patient outcomes and strengthen team trust and communication for a smoother, more cohesive environment.

Psychological safety in a team describes an environment where team members feel free to express their thoughts openly and without fear of being penalized. As AI becomes more desirable in a high cognitive-load work environment, a teaming-focused implementation framework may bring the focus back to the patient, supporting a culture that prioritizes open discussion and shared decision making. With additional time and less cognitive load on all clinicians, ED team members may engage in more face-to-face communication, both with each other and with patients.