From Pilot to Enterprise-Wide Implementation: Three Partners Share Why They Expanded Use of Abridge
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Generative AI is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in clinical settings. To ensure safe, responsible, and effective deployment, healthcare systems are conducting pilots of this technology, often trying competing products before implementing enterprise-wide. Technology leaders at healthcare systems are wise to rigorously test and validate any new technologies they introduce into clinical workflows. Regardless of outcome, insights gained will prove invaluable as generative AI continues to become an increasingly important part of healthcare operations.
Recently, three Abridge partners spoke at the Becker’s Health IT, Digital Health, RCM Annual Meeting: The Future of Business and Clinical Technologies:
- Dr. Sachin Shah, Chief Medical Information Officer, UChicago Medicine
- Dr. Kristin Jacob, Medical Director, Office of Physician and APP Fulfillment, and Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Physician, Corewell Health
- Dr. Alicia Jacobs, Vice Chair for Clinical Operations Department of Family Medicine, The University of Vermont Health Network
Here is what they learned in their pilots that caused them to expand use of generative AI to more clinicians:
Lesson 1: Generative AI Reduced Administrative Burden and Increased Work-Life Balance
For every eight hours clinicians spend with patients, they spend 5.5 hours working on electronic health records (EHR), according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“For a primary care physician to actually do the work we’re instructed to do, it would take 27 hours in a 24-hour day,” said Dr. Kristin Jacob, Medical Director, Office of Physician and APP Fulfillment at Corewell Health, a Michigan-based healthcare system with 12,000 clinicians who work across 21 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient and post-acute locations.
During the Abridge pilot, Dr. Jacob reported Corewell clinicians experienced a 48% reduction in "pajama time," referring to after-hours note-taking that often eats into personal time. Furthermore, 85% of clinicians in Corewell’s pilot reported a "significant improvement in their job satisfaction," correlating directly with reduced administrative burden and improved work-life balance.
"[Abridge] has been one of the most instrumental changes in their careers to help them move closer to the work-life balance they’re seeking," said Dr. Jacob.
For many clinicians, administrative burden pushes them to leave the profession altogether. In Medscape’s 2024 Physician Burnout and Depression report, 62% of physicians cite clerical tasks like charting and paperwork as the leading cause of burnout.
"We approached this [pilot] as a burnout intervention,” said Dr. Alicia Jacobs, Vice Chair for Clinical Operations Department of Family Medicine at The University of Vermont Health Network (UVM Health Network), an integrated, academic healthcare system that serves one million people in Vermont and New York. “There are so many layers of cognitive load that are better now."
The UVM Health Network pilot resulted in a 51% decrease in cognitive load, a 60% decrease in after-hours documentation, and a 53% increase in professional fulfillment, as measured by the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index, a gauge of physician satisfaction. At Corewell, the pilot showed a 61% decrease in cognitive load and a 53% reduction in burnout rate.
Lesson 2: Patient Experience Improved, too—Higher Satisfaction, Greater Comprehension, and Stronger Human Connection
About 80% of patients who received care from a clinician engaged more with them and less with their computers reported receiving “excellent” care, versus less than half who saw clinicians who were concentrating more on administrative tasks, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. When clinicians use Abridge’s generative AI for clinical documentation, patient satisfaction increases dramatically.
“In just six weeks, we saw a 2-4.5 percentage point increase in our Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores,” said Dr. Sachin Shah, Chief Medical Information Officer at UChicago Medicine, an academic, not-for-profit healthcare system headquartered on the University of Chicago campus and with locations throughout the wider Chicago area. Even a half-percentage-point increase in Press Ganey scores is considered excellent, according to Shah. “That was especially notable in areas like the concern shown by the provider and explanations given.”
Abridge generates Patient Visit Summaries in real time, written clearly and simply so patients can understand the content of their visit.
“We had an increase of about 40% in patient comprehension,” said Corewell’s Dr. Jacob, reinforcing the results seen at UChicago Medicine. “The Patient Visit Summary has been one of the most valuable tools for me, especially when it comes to complex instructions. It’s another way Abridge helps us deliver high-quality care, by helping educate our patients with clear communication.”
Direct communication during the visit, enabled by Abridge unshackling clinicians from typing during encounters, is also critically important. According to research in JAMA Oncology, 71% of patients prefer physicians who are not focused on their computers during visits.
“I underestimated how much cognitive bandwidth was being used when typing notes, even when I was making eye contact,” said Dr. Shah. “Now, I’m fully present in the conversation, and I think patients can feel that.”
The benefits transcend how patients feel about their experiences: Higher engagement has also been shown to lower hospital readmissions by up to 14%.
“Abridge has been one of the most valuable tools for me, saving time and ensuring patients feel more informed,” said Dr. Jacob.
Lesson 3: Abridge Is Easy to Implement and Tailored to Health System Needs
A tremendous amount of deep science and complex technology backstops the Abridge product experience. Yet, the technology is easy to use and easy to customize, according to healthcare leaders who have piloted Abridge.
“The learning curve is not very steep: People were using it for their entire workday right from the start, with minimal training,” said Dr. Jacob.
Even clinicians who are typically intimidated by technology report that Abridge makes their lives easier.
“For the overwhelmed clinician who actually really needs Abridge, it’s very user-friendly,” said UVM Health Network’s Dr. Jacobs.
As Abridge scales across a diverse range of care settings, specialties, and languages, its purpose-built AI solution adapts to healthcare systems’ needs.
“Our specialists told us, ‘Hey, this is great, but how can we make it more specific to our cases?’ On the Abridge side, there’s a real desire to solicit this feedback, and it’s treated as highly valuable and turned into real change," said Dr. Shah.
Abridge is currently used by nearly 90 specialties with an average star rating indicating note satisfaction of 4.1 out of five.
Beyond scaling across specialties, generative AI for clinical documentation is being expanded to a wide range of care settings and languages. In the past year, Abridge alone has signed partnerships with dozens of hospital systems that represent tens of thousands of clinicians, including Kaiser Permanente, Duke Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine, UChicago Medicine, Reid Health, CHRISTUS Health, and many more. Abridge automatically detects which languages are spoken during visits and outperforms industry benchmarks in speech recognition across the most-spoken languages in the U.S., including English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic. Abridge conforms to clinician workflows with deeply integration with the Epic EHR. Abridge Inside for Emergency Medicine is adapted to the needs of emergency clinicians and busy emergency departments. Mayo Clinic and Epic recently formed a partnership with Abridge to develop a clinical documentation solution for the fast-paced and unique nursing workflow.
These diverse use cases mean it’s imperative that generative AI for clinical documentation solutions be flexible, responsive, and adaptable to partner needs.
“We found a very ready, perceptive partner in Abridge,” said Dr. Shah. “They’re receptive to feedback and, in many cases, the technology evolves month-to-month, not year-to-year, which is refreshing.”
If your organization is ready to reduce administrative burdens, improve patient outcomes, and foster stronger human connections in care, reach out to Abridge today to learn more about how we can help.
