As healthcare providers expand their use of ambient AI to reduce documentation time and improve patient interactions, they’re sharing best practices to guide later adopters. According to the report, two healthcare organizations in Pennsylvania and one based in North Carolina have deployed AI scribes intentionally, with the goal of transforming care at the bedside and restoring joy to clinicians.
For these providers, ongoing improvement is foundational to scaling successfully. Dr. Benjamin Slovis, chief medical information officer at Philadelphia-based Temple Health, notes that “it’s definitely not yet a silver bullet, but I have a lot of data to suggest that we are heading in the right direction with this tool.”
Wendy Charles, a teaching assistant professor in health informatics, healthcare management, and IT at the University of Denver, says that organizations should provide an environment where clinicians can test and implement new technologies slowly, giving opportunities for training and explaining how to use the technology correctly. They should also allow clinicians to provide feedback on the technology.
Penn Medicine, an early adopter of ambient AI, has developed ambient documentation for approximately 1,300 ambulatory providers and over 600 nurses. The organization is expanding these solutions across physician and nursing teams in ambulatory, inpatient, emergency, and home care settings, with full-scale deployment targeted for fall 2026.
Vice President and Chief Digital Applications Officer Anna Schoenbaum says that the data shows a 20% reduction in documentation time, and decreased after-hours documentation for 79% of users. The qualitative feedback has been equally striking, with some spouses reporting that their family members are spending less time on computers in the evening. It indicates a positive impact on work-life balance.
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Schoenbaum notes that metrics have also surfaced new questions, including a corresponding increase in orders placed. “Maybe that means we’re having more thorough conversations with our patients,” she says. The organization will continue to monitor these metrics to understand the effects of ambient AI.
Philadelphia-based Temple Health started piloting ambient documentation in 2024, and has since overseen additional pilots and a rollout to 400 end users. Dr. Slovis says that the most important measure is whether physicians feel more efficient and less burned out. He wants his providers to go home at the end of the day feeling that they’ve accomplished something.
One scaling challenge has been developing comparable key performance indicators across specialties. Slovis notes that it’s easy to compare metrics within a specialty, but harder to compare across different specialties. Temple Health has also used metrics to identify physicians who could benefit from ambient documentation tools and gathered feedback on clinical use.
Specialists wanted better documentation of assessment-and-plan notes, and the organization has worked to address these concerns. Slovis has seen these AI tools change the patient experience in his own practice. “Historically, I would auscultate a patient’s heart and lungs and not say anything, but now, I’m saying my observations out loud, and it changes the dynamic,” he says. This shift is part of a larger trend in healthcare deals.
Temple Health will continue to monitor the effects of ambient AI on patient care and physician burnout.