Multi-Site FQHC Cuts Costs by 3x and Scales with Freed

"In all 24 of our sites, providers can focus on patient care. We don't want them intimidated by the admin burden of documentation, especially in a day and age where the EHR dominates medicine." — Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

The problem: A revolving door

Camarena Health operates 24 clinical sites across California's Central Valley. On any given day, 50–60 providers deliver care across 10+ specialties.

They relied on human scribes. Turnover and callouts made it unsustainable.

"We were finding that providers were working with a new scribe almost every week. We wanted something consistent and reliable."— Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

Retraining was a recurring tax on providers' time and attention.

And the documentation backlog that built up in the gaps was slowing down note closure. Trying to close 22+ daily notes each caused billing delays.

Evaluating AI scribes — including their own EHR

Camarena tested several AI scribe competitors.

One of the contenders was Athena's native AI scribe — built directly into the EHR they already used.

It didn't pass.

“The notes contain medically appropriate language. There are no misspellings. Freed's notes are more concise and accurate than some of the competitors that contain more fluff." — Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

Problems came down to:

• Pricing — Athena's AI scribe was at roughly 3x the cost
• Speed — Other scribe notes took longer to generate
• Note quality — They didn't want outputs that needed hours of editing

When they found Freed, their provider lead says:

"It was essentially a no brainer." — Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

Freed sends notes directly to Athena through an easy, one-click EHR integration. Learn more about EHR push.

Deployment across 24 sites

Camarena didn't launch Freed with an enterprise rollout. They started with a handful of clinicians, and let adoption spread on its own.

It did.

Today, 50+ clinicians use Freed across 24 sites and more than 10 specialties. There was no heavy training or IT implementation cycle. Clinicians picked it up, fit it into their workflows, and kept going.

In 2025, Camarena's clinicians documented 96,067 visits using Freed — averaging about 42 visits per clinician per week.

Saving 12,800 hours in one year

Before Freed, documentation averaged roughly 10 minutes per visit. Now, clinicians spend about 2 minutes reviewing and finalizing each note.

Applied across 96,067 visits, that 8-minute differential works out to approximately 12,800 hours returned to clinicians in a single year — the equivalent of roughly 6 full-time clinicians.

That impacts patient care, clinician time, and even the revenue cycle.

"By the time the clinician sits down, the note is ready. Signing that note becomes a lot easier." — Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

In FQHCs, the path from patient encounter to reimbursement runs through documentation. Faster notes mean faster billing. For an organization operating at Camarena's scale, that consistency has real financial consequences.

Multilingual and multisite support

Notes across Camarena's clinical sites are consistently organized, medically precise, and free of the errors that slow down care.

Notes adapt to:

• Different specialties, note types, and templates
• Multiple languages — even in the same visit
• Any device, with notes pushed right into their EHR

Instant charting support at scale

Every new site means new hiring, new training, new turnover. The documentation burden grows with the organization — and so does the cost of managing it.

Freed doesn't work that way.

"We started with a few licenses and have added additional licenses every month as we grow." — Christopher Fasulo, PA-C, Advanced Practice Provider Lead

FQHCs can get started without retraining cycles, hiring pipelines, and IT dependencies.

The documentation infrastructure grows with the organization. That structural advantage that helps them thrive, and makes them grow.

Camarena Health turned documentation debt into clinical capacity — across 24 sites, in one year, without adding headcount. ‍

See how Freed can scale your organization.