👩‍⚕️💬 The Vanishing Nurse’s Voice Due To AI and the Entrepreneur’s Opportunity

👩‍⚕️💬 The Vanishing Nurse’s Voice Due To AI and the Entrepreneur’s Opportunity

This Week’s Real-Life Lesson:

Where I Was

Last week, I shared a post about the evolving role of AI in primary care and the decision many physicians face between hiring a medical assistant-scribe or adopting an ambient AI scribe. That piece sparked a powerful response from a seasoned triage nurse who has lived the frontlines of healthcare change.

Her email wasn’t a quick reply. It was a heartfelt reflection that captured the anxiety, frustration, and sense of loss many healthcare professionals are experiencing right now. I want to share a summary of her words with you—because they are worth sitting with.

What Happened

In her note, she explained that her health system recently downsized IT and dietician staff in the name of efficiency and cost-cutting through AI. As a triage nurse, she fears her role is next on the chopping block.

She described how patients used to call and reach “their nurse,” someone they knew and trusted. Now, with a new cloud-based phone system, they get routed to “a nurse”—whoever is available. On paper, this looks efficient. In reality, patients are frustrated, feeling the loss of continuity and personal trust.

For the nurses, the system is dehumanizing. Every call is logged, timed, and analyzed. Even taking a coffee break or bathroom break becomes a moment of guilt. On top of this, triage nurses are now answering messages for doctors they don’t work with, only to have those messages bounce back when patients want “their doctor’s nurse” to reply.

She ended her note with this blunt reflection: “We are losing the personal touch of primary care to save money, and neither patients nor staff are fans of it.”

My Response

Her words hit me hard because they confirm what so many of us already know: efficiency without humanity is not progress.

I responded by affirming that nurse-led triage for complex cases—especially when patients are juggling both chronic and acute concerns—will always require a real human. Nothing replaces the relational trust built through ongoing continuity of care.

But I also shared my vision for ChatRx, the product I’m building. ChatRx is designed to empower patients with immediate triage access 24/7—right from their homes, workplaces, or college dorm rooms. By handling the routine filtering and navigation, ChatRx reduces the noise that currently overwhelms triage nurses.

The goal is not to replace nurses, but to elevate them. Imagine if a nurse like the one who wrote me could spend her energy on complex cases that truly need her expertise, rather than answering another call for a simple UTI or pink eye.

A Case Study: Dr. L and the MA-Scribe vs. AI Dilemma

As I described in last week’s post, I coached a primary care doctor—let’s call her Dr. L—who was facing her own version of this tension. She had negotiated to hire an MA-scribe as part of her contract because she valued the hands-on support. But her health system rolled out an AI documentation tool and pressured her to use it instead.

Her dilemma: stick with the traditional human scribe (predictable, but costly and subject to turnover), or adopt AI (scalable, but less personal).

As I walked her through my own journey from three nurse scribes to hybrid AI-human models, she realized this wasn’t just about notes. It was about her business model as a micro-corporation physician.

She chose to test the AI system, not as a replacement but as a partner in workflow. That freed her MA to step up into higher-value tasks like closing care gaps, outreach, and preventive follow-up. The result? She got home earlier, her patients still had continuity, and her costs dropped.

This mirrors the same principle for triage nurses: AI can handle routine throughput, while humans handle relational complexity.

What I Learned

Reading that nurse’s email and reflecting on my own experience reminded me of a crucial truth:

👉 Every tool you choose in your practice—whether human or AI—is also a business decision.

As physician entrepreneurs, we don’t have the luxury of thinking about staffing and technology in isolation. We must consider how each decision affects:

• Patient experience – Does this preserve trust and relational care?

• Workflow efficiency – Does this reduce burnout and free humans for higher-value tasks?

• Business sustainability – Does this make financial sense as part of your micro-corporation?

This is why I see ChatRx as such a powerful entrepreneurial tool. It creates a new virtual entry point to the acute care ecosystem, one that is always on, consumer-first, and designed to integrate with health systems

By positioning itself as the “front door of acute care,” ChatRx doesn’t just serve patients—it relieves pressure on nurses and doctors while creating downstream value for health systems.

The Surprising Micro-Business Insight

Here’s the entrepreneurial takeaway: AI is not just a clinical decision—it’s a strategic business choice.

Just as Dr. L had to weigh an MA-scribe against an AI tool, you will face choices about where to deploy humans, where to deploy technology, and how to blend them.

If you’re employed, the system may push one option. But if you operate as a micro-corporation owner, you hold the power to design the model that fits your life, your patients, and your business strategy.

That freedom is exactly why I’ve devoted my work at PEA-SimpliMD to empowering physicians to think this way—as owners of their profession.

🧾 Is This Deductible?

Question: I had to get some legal advice for my micro-corporation. Who pays the legal bill?

Answer: If your legal advice was directly tied to your professional micro-corporation, then the corporation itself should pay the bill—not you personally. Why? Because the expense is considered an ordinary and necessary business expense under IRS rules.

Examples of deductible legal expenses include:

• Drafting or reviewing your corporate bylaws or operating agreements

• Employment contracts or independent contractor agreements

• Lease negotiations for office space

• Compliance questions tied to your medical practice or telemedicine entity

• General corporate legal advice that supports business operations

What you cannot deduct are legal expenses that are personal in nature—for example, estate planning, divorce, or anything unrelated to your corporate work. Those are your responsibility as an individual, not your corporation’s.

💡 Pro tip: Always have the invoice issued in your corporation’s name and paid from your corporate account. That way the paper trail is clean and defensible if ever questioned.

👉 Bottom line: Your micro-corporation pays for business-related legal advice, and yes—it’s deductible.

📬 Join the Movement

"Entrepreneurship is the act of seeing opportunity where others see threat, and building freedom where others feel trapped."

Thousands of physicians are breaking free from traditional employment by forming micro-businesses. Are you ready to join them?

👉 Join PEA Explorer Membership for just $99/year

And don’t miss my free e-book: Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment