Time savings analysis
Illustrative planning model
Illustrative planning model
Documentation time · Illustrative model
Model how structured capture can reduce repeated transcription and manual report assembly across a full treatment series.
Behavioral-health clinicians can spend a large share of their working hours on documentation and administrative work.
The cited surveys put documentation near 35 percent of working hours and administrative work at roughly 16 minutes per patient encounter. Those figures establish the manual baseline used in this model. The question is how much repeated documentation work can be reduced when information is captured in structured fields and reused for later reports and review.
Across one full treatment series, modeled documentation time falls from 8.4 hours to 1.1.
How to read this. This is an illustrative planning model, not a measured product result. The manual times are drawn from the sources cited in the model. The Arcametric estimates assume structured fields reduce repeated entry and that supported reports and exports reduce manual assembly. Every clinic should validate the assumptions against its own workflow.
Nine documentation tasks across one interventional mental health treatment series. Times are per task, in minutes.
| # | Documentation task | Manual (min) | Arcametric (min) | Saved (min) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pre-session baseline screening (PHQ-9, GAD-7, ACE, PCL-5): paper plus EHR entry | 28 | 5 | 23 | APA Practice Guidelines; Eleos Health 2024 |
| 2 | Informed consent documentation: paper, signed form, scanned to EHR | 15 | 2 | 13 | Standard clinical intake benchmarks |
| 3 | Dosing session vitals log (every 15 min, 7-hr session, 28 readings): paper plus transcription | 42 | 8 | 34 | CMS time-motion study analog |
| 4 | Adverse event documentation: narrative note plus manual MedDRA code lookup | 22 | 3 | 19 | IQVIA MedDRA coding study 2023: avg 22 min per event |
| 5 | Post-session integration notes: SOAP format in EHR free-text | 20 | 7 | 13 | Eleos Health: avg 16 to 20 min post-session notes |
| 6 | Clinical outcomes compilation for insurance: manual chart review plus PDF creation | 45 | 1 | 44 | CMS billing burden estimates; APA admin surveys |
| 7 | Audit and compliance export: multi-source document assembly | 90 | 1 | 89 | Expert estimate: 1.5 hr minimum for manual assembly |
| 8 | Preparing a de-identified research export | 60 | 1 | 59 | Shared Arcametric records exclude patient names; study-specific de-identification review may still be required |
| 9 | Drug interaction reference documentation | 15 | 1 | 14 | Illustrative reference-lookup assumption; Arcametric is documentation and reference support, not clinical decision support |
| Full treatment series (3 dosing sessions per patient) | 505 min (8.4 hrs) | 65 min (1.1 hrs) | 440 min (7.3 hrs) |
Intake tasks (1 and 2) are counted once per series, dosing tasks (3 to 5) across three sessions, and export and compliance tasks (6 to 9) once per series.
For a solo practitioner treating 40 patients a year, the model implies about 292 hours not spent on the modeled documentation tasks, roughly 7.3 full-time workweeks. How that time is ultimately used depends on the practice.
The modeled gain is time, not a dollar figure or a clinical result. The estimate assumes structured capture reduces repeated transcription and manual report assembly; actual savings will depend on the clinic's workflow.
| What this is | What this is not |
|---|---|
| A planning model of documentation time, built from published sources and structured-capture design | Not a guarantee of realized time savings. Each clinic should validate against its own workflow. |
| A count of minutes spent documenting the arc of care | Not a claim about clinical outcomes. Arcametric documents and surfaces; it does not direct care. |
The fastest way to judge the model is to watch structured capture replace manual steps on a synthetic, de-identified record. Watch the on-demand demo or contact Arcametric for a deeper review.
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