aceUse of Ambient AI Scribes to Reduce Administrative Burden and Professional Burnout
Importance: While in short supply and high demand, ambulatory care clinicians spend more time on administrative tasks and documentation in the electronic health record than on direct patient care, which has been associated with burnout, intention to leave, and reduced quality of care. Objective: To examine whether ambient AI scribes are associated with reducing clinician administrative burden and burnout. Design, Setting, and Participants: This quality improvement study used preintervention and 30-day postinterv…
"Doctor's Hospital" by Cindy Funk is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.
Between February and October 2024, six US health systems enrolled 451 ambulatory clinicians in a quality improvement study of an ambient AI scribe, with 263 included in analysis after 30 days of use. Self-reported burnout fell from 51.9% to 38.8% with an odds ratio of 0.26, and secondary measures showed lower cognitive task load, more focused attention on patients, and less after-hours documentation.
The findings matter because administrative burden is linked to burnout, intention to leave, and reduced quality of care, and AI scribes are being rapidly adopted as a potential remedy. Uncertainty remains due to voluntary participation, 60.3% survey completion, self-reported outcomes, short duration, and a small negative signal for patient understandability of notes that warrants further evaluation.
- Quality improvement study across 6 academic and community-based health systems in the US between February 1 and October 31, 2024.
- 451 clinicians enrolled, 272 completed pre and post surveys, 263 with direct ambulatory care included; mean 15.1 years in practice, 53.6% female, 49.7% primary care.
- Primary outcome was change in self-reported burnout estimated using hierarchical logistic regression; secondary outcomes transformed to 10-point scales and compared with paired t tests.
- Secondary improvements reported for ability to provide undivided attention and ability to add patients to clinic schedule if urgently needed.
Use of an ambient AI scribe for 30 days was associated with reduced self-reported burnout and lower note-related cognitive load and after-hours documentation time among ambulatory clinicians.
The rundown
The study recruited ambulatory physicians and advanced practice practitioners through health system digital health leaders and provided the same ambient AI platform for clinical note documentation for 30 days, with pre and post surveys.
Results showed improvements on 10-point scales for note-related cognitive task load with mean difference 2.64 points, undivided attention 2.05 points, and secondary burnout measures, alongside a 0.90 hour reduction in after-hours documentation, but a -0.44 point change in patient understandability.
Sources
- Peer-reviewedJAMA Network Open2025-10-02
How should this claim be treated?
The debate