Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are needed for modern healthcare. They keep patient history, treatment plans, test results, and billing information. But while EHRs help a lot, doctors and nurses have to spend a lot of time writing down every detail. Many say they spend more time typing notes and doing paperwork than talking with patients.
The 25 By 5 Symposium found that documenting takes a large part of clinicians’ work hours. The goal is to cut this time to only 25% of what it is now by 2025. This is important because spending too much time on paperwork can cause burnout for clinicians.
Burnout means feeling very tired and unhappy with work. It affects many healthcare workers, especially women and people of color. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts there will be 54,100 to 139,000 fewer doctors than needed by 2033 in the U.S. So, using clinicians’ time well is very important to keep good patient care. When clinicians spend too much time on paperwork, they have less time for patients, which can lead to more mistakes and problems like hospital infections.
Ambient AI is a type of artificial intelligence that helps healthcare workers by doing documentation and admin tasks automatically. It works quietly in the background, listening during patient visits, taking notes, and handling paperwork without needing much input.
At Denver Health in Colorado, a safety-net hospital, 50 clinicians joined an eight-week test using Nabla’s Ambient AI with their Epic EHR system. They found that note-typing time dropped by 40% per patient visit. Clinicians felt less rushed and spent 13% less time charting after work, often called “pajama time.” 82% of clinicians felt less stressed, and patients gave better satisfaction scores that went up by 15 points.
Dr. Daniel Kortsch from Denver Health said the AI assistant helped improve face-to-face time with patients. It also made work-life balance better for providers. The AI helped with language by giving instructions and notes in patients’ preferred languages. This helped build trust with patients who don’t speak English well.
One big advantage of Ambient AI is that it can automate tasks that clinicians and staff used to do by hand. Simbo AI is a company that uses AI to handle phone calls at medical offices. This helps when the front desk gets many calls about setting appointments, questions, and follow-ups.
Simbo AI answers regular calls and gives the right information so that medical assistants and receptionists can spend more time on harder tasks and patient care.
For clinical work, tools like Commure’s Ambient AI can listen and write notes right inside the EHR. Doctors like Dr. Neel Palakurthy from Dignity Health say these tools cut charting time by 41%. This gives more time for diagnosing and treating patients.
Other AI tools help with coding, billing, and managing money. For example, Commure’s AI coding system helped a New York City health system earn 20% more and cut denials in half. This made finances better while making paperwork easier.
AI can also help with appointment reminders, checking on patients, and asking about symptoms. This lowers the number of missed appointments and helps schedule better. Some AI tools even suggest treatments during visits so doctors don’t get overwhelmed with information.
Using Ambient AI in real healthcare shows clear benefits. Less paperwork means providers can spend more time with patients. This makes clinicians happier with their work and improves patient care.
For instance, Dr. Norman Lamberty, an OB-GYN, used Ambient AI to cut his charting time by 25%. This helped him have a better work and life balance and spend more time caring for patients.
Northeast Medical Services (NEMS), which serves many different people, used Multilingual Ambient AI with Epic. This made clinical notes almost perfect and cut documentation time by 30%. This is very important where language differences can make it hard to care for patients well.
Cutting after-hours paperwork also reduces burnout in healthcare workers. This became even more clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kevin C., a nurse from Florida, said too much admin work during the pandemic made him feel very tired and less in control of patient care. AI tools like these can help fix problems like that.
Developers are working to expand Ambient AI to help nurses and call center teams more, so the workload is shared. Nabla plans to improve support for clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and coding called hierarchical condition category (HCC). This could make billing more accurate and help with patient risk assessments to improve healthcare quality.
Another future goal is improving documentation templates for caring for different patient groups, such as transgender patients. This shows the health field is paying more attention to personal patient needs.
Legal rules and following laws are very important when using AI in healthcare. Experts like legal advisors from Sheppard Mullin suggest strong AI governance rules. These rules include clinical, legal, and compliance teams working together to avoid problems with patient privacy, AI bias, and following HIPAA laws.
Many studies show there will be fewer healthcare workers than needed. This means technology is needed to help staff. AI can handle paperwork, admin tasks, and patient communication. This lets clinicians spend more time on diagnosing and treating patients. It also helps keep more providers working in healthcare and makes patients happier.
Hospitals like Tenet Healthcare and HCA Healthcare use Ambient AI fully with their EHR systems. They show that AI can change healthcare from slow, error-prone methods to fast and accurate ones. This is important as the demand for healthcare keeps growing.
For healthcare leaders, practice owners, and IT managers in the U.S., Ambient AI offers useful ways to reduce clinician workload and improve patient care. AI tools can automate clinical notes and front office work, cutting down admin time, lowering burnout, and helping keep care quality high. Successes seen at Denver Health, Dignity Health, and others show how Ambient AI can make workflows better, support staff wellbeing, and improve patient engagement.
By using Ambient AI carefully and following the rules, healthcare groups can better meet challenges like staff shortages and more complex care needs. Adding AI to healthcare work can help build a system that works better and lasts longer for both clinicians and patients.
Nabla’s Ambient AI supports Denver Health’s clinical workforce by streamlining care delivery, reducing documentation burdens, and improving clinician work-life balance.
An 8-week pilot involving 50 participants demonstrated a 40% reduction in note-typing time per patient encounter and a significant boost in clinician satisfaction.
82% of clinicians reported feeling less time pressure per visit after the implementation of the AI assistant.
There was a 15-point increase in patient satisfaction scores following the pilot implementation.
Denver Health clinicians experienced a 13% reduction in after-hours ‘pajama time,’ allowing them to focus more on patient care.
Nabla’s AI offers seamless integration with Epic, reducing back-and-forths and streamlining documentation, which directly cuts note-taking time.
Nabla plans to expand support to nursing and call center teams and enhance coding optimization for Clinical Documentation Improvement.
The AI enhances communication with non-English speaking patients by providing instructions and documentation in their preferred language.
Future developments include refining note templates, particularly for transgender patient care, and expanding its use across more departments.
Denver Health aimed to reduce clinician workloads, improve patient interactions, and innovate care delivery, aligning with their mission of equity and quality healthcare.
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