Voice recognition and AI-driven ambient documentation tools can minimize administrative tasks and reduce busy clinicians’ documentation burdens, increasing both efficiency and clinician satisfaction. For these reasons, healthcare organizations are increasingly looking at and adopting these technologies to improve well-being and productivity.
This was the major theme of a featured panel discussion at Becker’s 2025 Annual Meeting in April. Panelists were:
- Travis Bias, DO, chief medical officer, clinician solutions, Solventum
- Susan Russell, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer, Singing River Health System (Ocean Springs, Miss.)
- Erik Summers, MD, chief medical officer, MUSC Health – Charleston (S.C.) Division
- K. Sarah Hoehn, MD, chief medical officer, La Rabida Children’s Hospital (Chicago)
Three key takeaways were:
- Reducing clinician documentation burden is needed more than ever. Clinical documentation requirements are becoming increasingly complex due to continuous regulatory updates and growing EHR complexity. These requirements are taking a heavy toll on clinicians, who find themselves spending more time completing patient charts during off hours, including evenings and weekends (“pajama time”).
“We found that we constantly added elements into Epic but were not looking at what was there and whether there’s still value in it,” Ms. Russell said. “So, we embarked on a program with our clinical documentation team to look at the value added and how we can start eliminating non-value-added elements.” As a result of this program, “We have reduced tens of thousands of best practice alerts that didn’t bring value to our clinicians,” she said.
Many documentation requirements are tied to activities that do not add value to patient care. “We have to change our mindset to focus on efficiency and quality of patient care,” Dr. Summers said. “That is going to be another piece of this process of getting past the old culture.” - AI-driven documentation tools can free up clinician time, alleviate cognitive burden and boost efficiency. A soon-to-be-publishedMUSC Health study among 125 clinicians showed that implementing AI documentation technology has led to a 27% drop in weeknight “pajama time” and a 35% drop in the time spent completing charts over the weekend.
However, for AI to have its intended positive impacts on clinicians’ workflows and well-being — and on organizations’ efficiency, care quality and retention metrics — clinicians need to know how to use it the right way.
“One of the biggest challenges from the AI technology vendor side is to prove short-term financial ROI, which depends on the set-up, context and users,” Dr. Bias said, adding that health systems should also think about the benefits of deploying AI that can’t be directly measured right away. These include possible reduction in burnout and improved clinician retention. To achieve these benefits, clinician education is essential.
“Organizations need to be thoughtful about deploying certain types of AI and ensure that clinicians are well educated on using that AI,” Dr. Bias said.
Further, organizations need to create the right change management structure and conditions for collaboration to promote the adoption of AI documentation technology. La Rabida Children’s Hospital has set up a change improvement committee to drive such efforts.
“Our clinicians meet with the IT team once a month. One of my nurse practitioners has an 18-page document of all the different changes she wants to see made,” Dr. Hoehn said. “They have those conversations, pick two or three things that are high priority and impact all of the workflows and then move them forward.” - Solventum’s adoption specialists are key to successful AI implementation. When Solventum partners with hospitals and health systems on implementing its AI-powered medical dictation software, it does not merely provide a technology solution but supports organizations in driving the changes they want to achieve. “Our adoption specialists make sure that what we are doing from the vendor side helps push whatever the organization’s initiative may be,” Dr. Bias said.
One initiative Solventum recently supported was an organization’s effort to reduce “note bloat” — clinical notes that are excessively long and detailed, which places a time burden on the next clinician who reviews that patient’s chart. “I think [that type of support] is one thing you ought to demand from your vendors,” Dr. Bias advised.
To get the most value from their investment in AI documentation tools, health system leaders must prioritize thoughtful implementation, engage clinicians early and find partners committed to ongoing refinement. Technology alone won’t eliminate the burden of unnecessary documentation. Real results require not just smart tools, but also cultural change and sustained support.
AI-driven ambient clinical documentation that brings the focus back to care. Learn more here.
