Electronic health records, once viewed largely as digital filing cabinets, are now being reimagined as strategic tools to improve care delivery, reduce clinician burden and enable AI.
Hospitals and health systems across the country are piloting new ways to optimize EHR use. From ambient voice technology to AI-assisted documentation, organizations are working to streamline workflows and enhance clinical decision-making.
Stanford Health Care, based in California, for example, is testing an internally developed, AI-backed software designed to revolutionize clinician interaction with the EHR. The software enables clinicians to ask questions, request summaries and pull specific information from a patient’s medical record. ChatEHR is built directly into Stanford’s Epic EHR to maximize clinical workflow.
“This is a unique instance of integrating large language model capabilities directly into clinicians’ practice and workflow,” said Michael Pfeffer, MD, chief information and digital officer at Stanford Health Care and School of Medicine in a Stanford news release. “We’re thrilled to bring this to the workforce at Stanford Health Care.”
Several health systems are also testing AI use within the EHR, with many piloting—and in some cases scaling—ambient AI technologies throughout their organizations. At Iowa City-based University of Iowa Health Care, the health system has been using an ambient AI tool for clinical documentation systemwide since September 2024. Users report an average weekly savings of 2.6 hours on after-hours documentation.
This effort to reimagine the EHR through AI comes as hospitals and health systems across the U.S. continue to report clinician burnout, much of it tied to EHR-related tasks. Several health IT leaders have told Becker’s that ambient documentation, generative AI and automation can help reduce that burden.
EHR vendors are also responding to this trend by integrating more automation features, forming partnerships with tech companies focused on AI and releasing their own AI capabilities. Epic and Oracle Health have both launched generative AI tools in recent months aimed at simplifying clinical documentation.
While these AI-enabled EHR features are still in their early stages, hospital executives told Becker’s that they are optimistic about transforming the EHR into a more connected, intelligent and user-friendly system.
