First Day Rounding in a While — and I Finished Early
A nocturnist's story of handling 15 patients, multiple consults, and complex cases—and still finishing early thanks to Around Notes.
I'm usually a nocturnist. My world is admissions, cross-cover, running from rapid response to page, often with 12 different problems swirling in my head at once. Today was a bit different. Today I rounded.
The Setup
I walked into a census of 15 patients, including a few ELOS'rs who had been in the hospital long enough to collect a phone book of consultant notes. Every family seemed to need me — and not just once. Everyone had to talk to me twice. And somehow every single problem on the list had to be addressed.
This is where being an internist becomes both a gift and a curse. You carry the whole hospital in your head. The labs, the meds, the imaging, the "wasn't that creatinine creeping up two days ago?" I actually had to answer a daughter's question about her father's potassium, from memory, while simultaneously trying to explain my suspicion for an SBO.
The Usual Struggle
Normally on a rounding day like this, the notes pile up. You promise yourself you'll "catch up after rounds." That turns into staying late, hammering away at progress notes when your brain is already fried.
But today I did something different.
The New Workflow
For each patient, I opened Around Notes and created a draft. I pasted in yesterday's H&P or progress note, consultant updates, overnight events. My custom smart phrase pulled in the data I wanted: labs, vitals, meds. As I rounded, I dropped in quick prompts into the app — just shorthand thoughts, clinical updates, things I'd normally scribble in the margins of my signout.
And then something wild happened.
As the day went on, my notes got generated in the background. Clean, structured, ready. I copied them straight back into the chart. Instead of facing a mountain of half-finished notes at 5pm, I had them done.
The Results
And here's the kicker:
- I didn't have to rewrite my colleagues' notes of varying quality — the AI standardized them for me.
- I even did four discharges on my first day. Each discharge summary came with patient instructions — one even in Spanish — generated in less than a minute.
- That was nothing short of a miracle.
Finishing Early
I finished early. Not "early" like cutting corners. Early because the weight of typing, formatting, and double-checking was off my shoulders. Early because I didn't need to sit down and start from scratch after seeing 15 patients. Early because the app had already done the grunt work, and I just had to be the doctor.
This wasn't just about speed. It was about sanity.
The Real Value
Around Notes didn't replace me. It amplified me. The nuance, the judgment, the conversations — those are mine. But the clerical burden? The endless EMR clicks? That, finally, felt lighter.
As a nocturnist thrown into rounds, finishing early felt like a small miracle. And I know I'm not the only one who could use that miracle.
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About the Author
Dr. Micheal Massoud
Founder & Hospitalist | Wharton EMBA
Physician, founder, and Wharton Executive MBA candidate with roots in military medicine and a mission to make healthcare human again. Former Air Force officer who practiced hospital medicine across the globe and founded Around Notes—an AI-driven platform that helps hospitalists write better notes, faster. At Wharton, I'm bridging healthcare, technology, and leadership to create tools that amplify clinicians, not replace them.