Health systems have been demoing and exploring the adoption of Epic’s new AI scribe that will likely reshape the ambient clinical documentation market.
Epic released AI Charting in early February, intensifying competition in the growing market for AI tools that automatically generate clinical notes. The EHR giant said its solution will also be able to queue up orders in real time.
“We do plan to use it,” said Diane Hunt, MD, chief health information officer of State College, Pa.-based Mount Nittany Health, which is rolling out Epic in May. “The likelihood that it’s going to be further integrated with ordering and those sorts of functionalities will be well worth the investment.”
The only thing that would derail that decision would be pricing, which Epic has yet to reveal, Dr. Hunt said. But she expects the cost to be comparable to Mount Nittany Health’s current AI scribe, Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot (previously known as DAX), which she pegged at “a couple hundred dollars per month per provider.” (Epic has previously said it will incorporate Microsoft technology into its solution.)
Dr. Hunt has also seen demos of the tool, and said it’s comparable with the Epic-integrated AI scribes that exist today. But she envisions future connectivity to other parts of the EHR being the differentiator.
The first organization to go live with Epic’s AI Charting was Madison-based Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, a managed care nonprofit with its own primary care clinics. Group Health Cooperative codeveloped the tool with Epic, which is located in nearby Verona, Wis. The organization reported early savings of up to 60 minutes a day per clinician and improved provider well-being and patient experience.
“We are in discussions with Epic about this innovative tool,” said Anna Schoenbaum, DNP, RN, vice president and chief digital applications officer of Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine. “However, at this moment, we’re not quite ready to share specific details.”
Other health system IT leaders told Becker’s they either haven’t tested it or are locked into contracts with other vendors so aren’t in a position to change AI scribes.
“We have not tried it yet,” said Michael Ryan, chief healthcare technology, digital and data strategist at UT Austin (Texas), which is launching Epic for ambulatory care in April and inpatient by 2030. “Given our go-live is imminent, we are not introducing changes at this time. Perhaps we will look at it in the future, but no decision yet.”
