We Analyzed 2,000 SOAP Notes. Here's What the Best Chiropractors Do Differently.
Data from 2,000+ AI-processed SOAP notes reveals surprising patterns. Top performers share 5 habits that cut documentation time by 60% while improving note quality.
When you process thousands of SOAP notes through an AI system, patterns emerge. Some chiropractors consistently produce faster, cleaner documentation. Others struggle with the same issues over and over.
We analyzed 2,000+ SOAP notes from ChiroScribe users to find out what separates efficient documenters from the rest. The results were surprising—and actionable.
The Data Set
Over three months, we examined:
- 2,147 SOAP notes from practicing chiropractors
- 18 different practices across 12 states
- Average 28 patients per day per provider
- Documentation times ranging from 45 seconds to 12 minutes per note
- Chief complaint
- Pain level (0-10)
- Changes since last visit
- Patient's own words
- During visit: Mental note of key subjective points
- Patient leaves room: 15-second subjective dictation
- End of day or between patients: Complete the O, A, and P
- S: [Pain level], [location], [changes since last visit]
- O: [Palpation findings], [ROM if relevant], [adjustment performed]
- A: [Subluxation complex], [response to treatment]
- P: [Next visit], [home care], [referrals if any]
- Redundant information
- Vague qualifiers ("some tenderness," "moderate restriction")
- Copy-pasted boilerplate that didn't reflect the actual visit
We anonymized everything and looked for patterns. Here's what we found.
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Finding #1: The Best Notes Are Recorded, Not Typed
The data: Chiropractors who dictated their notes averaged 2.1 minutes per note. Those who typed averaged 6.8 minutes.
That's a 69% time savings—just from switching input methods.
But here's the interesting part: the dictated notes weren't shorter. They actually contained 23% more clinical detail on average. When you're speaking naturally, you include context you'd skip while typing.
"I used to write 'patient reports improvement.' Now I say 'patient reports 40% improvement in lower back pain since last visit, sleeping through the night for the first time in weeks.' Same effort, better documentation."
— Dr. Michael Torres, Austin TX
Takeaway: Your voice is faster than your fingers. If you're still typing notes, you're working harder than you need to.
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Finding #2: Top Performers Front-Load the Subjective
We noticed a clear pattern in high-quality notes: the first 15 seconds of dictation contained 80% of the subjective section.
Efficient chiropractors start talking while the patient interaction is fresh—often while the patient is still getting off the table. They capture the subjective immediately:
Slower documenters tend to save everything for later, then struggle to remember details.
The optimal workflow:
Takeaway: Capture the subjective within 60 seconds of the patient interaction. Your memory degrades fast.
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Finding #3: Consistent Structure Beats Creative Writing
We scored notes on a "structure consistency" metric—how closely they followed the same format across visits.
The correlation was striking:
| Structure Consistency | Avg. Documentation Time | Error Rate |
|----------------------|------------------------|------------|
| High (same format) | 2.4 minutes | 3% |
| Medium | 4.1 minutes | 8% |
| Low (varies widely) | 5.9 minutes | 14% |
Chiropractors who used the same basic template for similar visit types documented faster AND made fewer errors.
This doesn't mean being robotic. It means having a reliable starting point:
For a typical adjustment visit:
Takeaway: Create 3-4 templates for your most common visit types. Use them as starting points, then customize. (Need templates? Grab our free chiropractic SOAP note templates.)
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Finding #4: The 20-Word Objective Rule
Here's a surprising finding: the best objective sections were concise.
We expected thorough documenters to write more. Instead, the highest-rated notes (scored by compliance and clarity) had objective sections averaging 47 words. Lower-rated notes averaged 89 words.
Why? Verbose objectives often contained:
The best objectives were specific and quantified:
❌ Vague: "Patient presented with tenderness in the lumbar region. Some restriction noted in range of motion. Adjustment performed."
✅ Specific: "Tenderness at L4-L5 bilateral. Flexion limited to 60°. Diversified adjustment to L4, L5, and SI joint with audible release."
Takeaway: Specific beats long. Include measurements, levels, and locations—but cut the filler.
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Finding #5: The Assessment Is Where Most Chiropractors Lose Time
We tracked where documentation time was spent across each SOAP section:
| Section | Avg. Time (slow group) | Avg. Time (fast group) |
|------------|------------------------|------------------------|
| Subjective | 1.2 min | 0.4 min |
| Objective | 2.1 min | 0.8 min |
| Assessment | 2.8 min | 0.5 min |
| Plan | 0.7 min | 0.4 min |
The assessment section had the biggest time gap between fast and slow documenters.
Why? Slower documenters were essentially re-diagnosing each visit. They'd write lengthy clinical reasoning for conditions they'd already established.
Fast documenters understood: the assessment for a follow-up visit doesn't need to re-explain the diagnosis. It just needs to document current status:
❌ Over-explained: "Based on the patient's presentation, history, and examination findings from the initial evaluation on 12/1/24, the patient continues to present with lumbar subluxation complex at L4-L5 with associated myofascial involvement of the paraspinal musculature, consistent with ICD-10 code M99.03..."
✅ Efficient: "Lumbar subluxation complex (L4-L5) responding well to care. 40% improvement in reported symptoms since initial visit."
Takeaway: Your assessment should reflect the current visit, not re-justify the diagnosis. Save the detailed clinical reasoning for initial evaluations and re-exams.
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The Compound Effect
When we looked at chiropractors who applied all five patterns, the results compounded:
| Habit | Individual Time Savings |
|-------|------------------------|
| Dictation vs. typing | 4.7 minutes |
| Front-loading subjective | 1.2 minutes |
| Consistent structure | 1.8 minutes |
| Concise objectives | 0.9 minutes |
| Efficient assessments | 2.3 minutes |
Combined savings: ~11 minutes per note.
For a chiropractor seeing 25 patients per day, that's 4.5 hours saved daily. Or more realistically—finally leaving the office on time.
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What AI Revealed About Human Documentation
Here's the meta-insight from analyzing all this data: most documentation inefficiency isn't about typing speed or software. It's about habits and structure.
The AI didn't make anyone faster. It just revealed who was already efficient—and let us study what they did differently.
The best documenters treat SOAP notes like a system, not an art form. They:
None of this requires new software. You could implement these habits tomorrow with a voice memo app and discipline.
But if you want the AI to handle the formatting, structuring, and compliance checking while you focus on patient care? That's what we built ChiroScribe for.
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Try It Yourself
Want to see how your documentation stacks up? Here's a simple audit:
Most chiropractors who try dictation don't go back.
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This analysis was conducted on anonymized, aggregated data from ChiroScribe users who opted into product improvement research. No individual patient information was accessed or stored.
Related reading: See how one chiropractor tracked 47 hours of monthly documentation time and what finally fixed it.
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