Ambient scribes are poised to be one of the fastest technology adoptions in the history of healthcare, according to a report by the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) on AI adoption in healthcare delivery systems.
The report provides insights on navigating early adoption, tracking progress while using the technology and delivering impact with early use.
Ambient scribes utilize AI to convert verbal patient/provider interactions into clinical documentation and, eventually, medical billing. Experts say the technology has the potential to minimize clinician burnout, improve productivity and reduce administrative burden.
PHTI’s report says implementation of ambient scribe technology has varied among healthcare participants, but the largest initial focus has been on primary care.
“Physician adoption has been heterogeneous. Often, there is one cohort of heavy users; another that uses ambient for some but not all visits; and another of low- or no-use clinicians, including those who tried and stopped,” the report says.
“Interestingly, several organizations observed that the clinicians who saw the greatest benefit were those who had not yet optimized their documentation workflows, were consistently behind in notes, spent more time in conversation with their patients, or typically had longer summary notes.”
According to the report, emerging evidence suggests ambient scribe technology has had a positive impact on reducing clinician burnout and cognitive load, as well as improving the patient experience.
Data and anecdotal feedback have also shown a positive impact on the quality of clinical note summaries as long as a human is in the loop.
The report also notes that because of the highly competitive market, ambient scribe companies are differentiating by expanding their offerings to various end users, such as nurses, into revenue cycle teams, and clinical and administrative workflows.
“Many ambient scribes are extending into coding with the promise of optimizing evaluation and management and hierarchical condition category coding. It is not yet known what the downstream impact will be, though it is reasonable to expect that given existing incentive structures, ambient scribes will support higher-level coding, which — even if accurate — may increase healthcare spending and the costs of care,” the report states.
THE LARGER TREND
The report notes that there are few published peer-reviewed studies, and they show mixed results due to heterogeneous measures and methods.
“Standardized metrics would improve the ability to understand how these solutions impact the system, including 1) clinician impact, 2) patient impact, and 3) financial impact,” the report said.
