A Comprehensive Approach for Assessing the Impact of Ambient Documentation

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Informatics
• Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Background:

• Healthcare organizations face significant workforce challenges, with provider burnout exacerbated by increasing administrative demands.
• Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers potential solutions to decrease administrative burden in healthcare.
• Ambient documentation is an AI-driven tool designed to enhance the efficiency of clinical documentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline Geisinger's evaluation and implementation strategy for ambient documentation.
• To assess the impact of ambient documentation on administrative burden, provider burnout, and patient experience.

Main Methods:

• Deployment of ambient documentation technology to 100 ambulatory providers at Geisinger in September 2024.
• Evaluation of the technology's impact on key healthcare metrics.

Main Results:

• Ambient documentation represents the first broad clinical application of generative AI at Geisinger.
• The study assesses the technology's effects on administrative workload, provider well-being, and patient care quality.

Conclusions:

• Ambient documentation has the potential to alleviate administrative burdens in healthcare.
• Further evaluation is needed to fully understand the long-term impact of generative AI tools like ambient documentation on healthcare providers and patients.