Ambient clinical intelligence: changing healthcare, one note at a time

Clinicians love their jobs; they also deserve to have a life outside of work.

A recent study and cross-sectional analysis found that for every eight hours physicians spend with patients, they spend an additional five hours on the EHR, much of which happens outside of regular work hours​.

In a 2023 Physician Sentiment Survey, 62% of physicians identified "excessive documentation requirements" as the leading cause of burnout. 

But what if we could flip this script?

In this guide, we'll discuss how ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) uses artificial intelligence and voice recognition to automate clinical documentation during patient visits, reducing the stress of documentation and helping you reclaim your time and energy.

Quick summary: Ambient clinical intelligence (ACI)

• Ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) uses AI and voice recognition to automate clinical documentation, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout.
• ACI captures patient encounters in real time, generating detailed clinical notes.
• Learn how ACI improves patient engagement, clinical workflows, and overall care quality and reduces burnout.

What is ambient clinical intelligence?

Let's start with a definition. Ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) is a secure and cloud-based solution that uses voice-enabled artificial intelligence to record patient interactions as they occur naturally. This could be between healthcare providers, patients, and their families.

ACI helps healthcare providers by streamlining one of the most time-consuming aspects of healthcare: documentation.

Rather than manually jotting down notes and typing them up after patient visits, ambient AI and voice recognition technologies capture your conversations and create detailed, HIPAA-compliant medical notes—covering everything from patient symptoms to treatment plans.

Overall, it has a number of benefits. This technology saves time, reduces errors, and improves the consistency of clinical note generation. This means you can count on your notes to be reliable for you and your patients.

How does ambient clinical intelligence work?

ACI begins working the moment a visit starts.

Just click a button to start it, and the ambient intelligence and voice recognition technologies will capture everything said during a patient visit—from symptoms discussed to outlined care plans.

Here's a typical scenario: Lets say a clinician is conducting a physical exam. At the same time, the ambient listening technology processes the information to draft HIPAA-compliant clinical notes.

‎And the best part? During a patient interaction, you won't need to pause to document anything manually. While the ambient clinical documentation tool works in the background, you can focus entirely on the patient experience.

When your visit is done, click “End visit” and view your completed SOAP note in about a minute.

The AI generates detailed SOAP notes, progress notes, patient instruction letters, detailed summaries, and full verbatim transcripts.

You can review and edit your clinical notes to meet your requirements before copying them to the electronic health record (EHR) or securely sending patient instructions via email.

The AI learns and adapts to your preferences over time, tailoring notes to you. With ACI technology like Freed, you can also teach the AI your preferred note structure for each visit type.

It also adapts to your formatting preferences, note structure, and documentation style, improving each time you use it. ACI tools learn from every interaction, constantly improving the precision and relevance of your clinical notes.

ACI is like having a helpful assistant by your side—although not as friendly as this loyal medical scribe:

Well... maybe not exactly like Jonathan.

Wondering how ACI works in real-life scenarios? Dr. Jack Jeng and Erica Dorn, family nurse practitioner, walk through a simulated patient interaction showing how conversations are captured and transcribed in real time with Freed, an AI medical scribe.

With ACI, healthcare professionals can trust that their clinical notes are accurate, complete and HIPAA-compliant, significantly reducing the administrative burden.

Simplify documentation with ambient clinical intelligence

Ambient clinical intelligence can improve more than just documentation. It can save time, improve patient engagement, and accurately capture patient encounters—all in real time.

Reducing administrative burden

Documentation has historically been time-consuming for healthcare professionals. Studies show that too much medical documentation does more than take time: it can impact patient care and lead to burnout.

ACI changes this dynamic by automating your clinical documentation and seamlessly integrating with EHR systems.

The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) implemented ambient AI technology pilot program in October 2023 for 10,000 physicians and staff to address the clinical documentation burden:

• In 10 weeks, 3,442 TPMG physicians used the AI medical scribe in 303,266 patient encounters.
• 968 physicians used it in 100+ encounters each, with one physician using it in 1,210 encounters.

Effectiveness:

• Physicians reported favorable responses, citing improved patient interactions and reduced after-hours work.
• Primary care physicians using the AI scribe showed statistically significant decreases in:
  • Time spent in the EHR outside of 7 am to 7 pm.
  • Time spent on notes during appointments.

Clinician and patient experience:

• Physicians reported favorable responses, citing improved patient interactions and reduced after-hours work.
• Early patient feedback was positive, with 71% reporting more time speaking with their physician and 81% noting less computer screen time.

This not only saves time but also frees up clinicians to focus more on patient satisfaction, allowing you to improve the quality of care​.

Improving patient engagement

Ambient clinical documentation lets healthcare providers engage with their patients, without having to jot down notes or remember every detail.

When clinicians are freed from the need to document the whole conversation, patient care improves.

ACI enables healthcare providers to maintain eye contact and stay present during consultations.

This focus on patient care builds stronger relationships and improves the overall quality of interactions, leading to a more positive healthcare experience for physicians and patients.

Improving clinical workflows

A recent simulation study applying preventive and chronic disease care guidelines to hypothetical patient panels found that primary care physicians need to work an impossible 27 hours per day:

• 14 hours for preventive care.
• 7 hours for chronic disease care.
• 2 hours for acute care.
• 3 hours for documentation and inbox management.

By streamlining the documentation process, you can efficiently complete all necessary documentation, reducing disruptions in daily routines.

Reducing medical errors

One key benefit of ACI is its ability to reduce medical errors associated with manual documentation. Studies have shown that manual transcription errors occurred at a rate of about 3.7%, with significant discrepancies in some cases.

ACI captures and transcribes the entire clinical interaction, minimizing the risk of incorrect information entering patient records and improving patient safety and care outcomes.

Reducing clinician burnout

You know that feeling of finally finishing your charting and inbox for the day? For some clinicians, those days are few and far between.

A 2023 AthenaHealth survey found:

• 93% of physicians surveyed feel burned out regularly, reporting they "spend an average of 15 hours per week working in 'pajama time,' outside their normal work hours."
• 56% said they've "considered leaving the field or remaining in the field but no longer seeing patients."

And there is a very real exodus of physicians leaving medical practice; the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) warns that the US will "likely face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036."

ACI can help change that. By using AI medical documentation tools, your clinical notes are accurate, detailed, and ready with minimal effort.

‎In the end, ACI benefits both clinicians and patients. By reducing the time spent on documentation, clinicians experience less burnout and greater job satisfaction. Patients, on the other hand, experience increased attention from their healthcare providers and reduced errors, resulting in a more positive patient experience.

ACI: A game-changer for healthcare management

Ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) isn't just a documentation tool—by integrating ACI into clinical workflows, healthcare organizations can also significantly improve efficiency, accuracy, and overall care quality.

Automate routine tasks

ACI streamlines clinical note-taking—but its impact goes far beyond documentation. By automating routine tasks, ACI lets healthcare teams focus in the moment, and actually shut their laptop at the end of the day.

Clinician happiness is just as important as clinician productivity. And ACI solutions like Freed's SOAP note tool support that happiness by taking over administrative tasks.

For example, ACI can document patient interactions in a busy emergency department, freeing clinicians from documentation during peak hours. Each patient receives the full attention of their healthcare provider while speeding up the workflow.

By automating documentation across departments, ACI cuts down on the administrative load—immeasurably increasing relief!

Consistency and compliance

ACI keeps documentation consistent and maintains compliance with healthcare regulations.

By entering clinical notes the same way every time, ACI also helps reduce note format variation and improve accuracy.

Adaptable across healthcare environments

ACI's flexibility suits many healthcare environments, from large hospitals to small clinics.

It takes real-time notes in any clinical setting—from clinics and EDs, to noisy home visits and telemedicine appointments. This adaptability supports different healthcare delivery models, improving efficiency and the quality of care.

Data-driven decision making

Healthcare organizations use data for informed decision-making. Accurate documentation can provide insights into clinical operations.

This data can help to identify patterns, predict future needs, and improve patient care and organizational efficiency.

For clinicians, by clinicians

Freed sets itself apart from other AI medical transcription tools because it's 100% clinician focused. Our number 1 goal? To make clinicians happier.

“Freed was built for (and with the help of) my wife after watching her chart at night for too many years. The only purpose of Freed is to make clinicians happier.”
—
Erez Druk, Dr. Meckler’s husband & Freed CEO

This means that every action we take centers around what will make clinicians' lives easier—from our product updates and features, to our quick and empathetic customer support.

That's because we're run by a team of real-life clinicians (and their partners!) that are determined to make a real difference, for real practitioners.

Conclusion

Ambient clinical intelligence offers a practical way to save time, reduce documentation, and increase patient satisfaction.

But ACI isn't just about saving time. It also creates consistent, accurate documentation that meets regulatory requirements. Whether in a large hospital, a small clinic, or through telemedicine, ACI works in many different healthcare settings, making it a valuable tool for improving efficiency and care.

Ready to try ambient clinical intelligence? Try it for free today and join more than 10,000 clinicians who save 2 hours daily with Freed's instant HIPAA-compliant clinical notes.