Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy has become the first health system to deploy the Android version of Microsoft’s ambient AI documentation tool for nurses, according to Chief Nurse Executive Stephanie Clements, BSN, RN.
The distinction matters for adoption. The tool was previously available only on iOS, and the ambient capture happens on a handheld mobile device, not the bedside computer, which does not record the interaction. Because Mercy runs “primarily Android products,” Ms. Clements said, an iOS-only tool could not reach its nurses at scale. And working out the Android “nuances” first clears a path for the many health systems with the same devices.
“I work for a health ministry that is very innovative and progressive, and it’s really a sense of pride,” Ms. Clements said. “We have the opportunity to make a difference for health systems across the world by being one of the first.”
At three pilot units, the ambient AI tool was associated with a 22% reduction in flowsheet documentation time per shift.
The system, which operates more than 50 hospitals and employs about 15,000 nurses, is scaling through a phased rollout: three pilot units, then one medical-surgical unit at each of 12 additional hospitals, with the goal of reaching every med-surg unit in its acute care facilities by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2027.
Mercy is now encouraging mobile-device documentation over the bedside computer as an early indicator of success, Ms. Clements said, and is testing what other capabilities future bedside technology might add.
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