- Design
- Retrospective interrupted time-series quality improvement study
- Population
- 902 outpatient clinicians, 1,637,227 encounters
- Primary outcome
- Active note time per encounter
- Effect
- −1.21 minutes (95% CI −1.74 to −0.68); high users −2.50 minutes
A 14-hospital health system in Boston rolled out an ambient AI scribe to outpatient clinicians from January 2025. An interrupted time-series analysis of 902 enrolled clinicians and 1.6 million encounters compared note time before and after enrolment.
Enrolment was associated with 1.21 fewer minutes of active note time per encounter (95% CI 0.68–1.74). High users saved about 2.5 minutes and their notes grew longer. There was no change in same-day or after-hours note closure, or in work relative value units.
The study cannot separate AI-written from clinician-written text, and it is observational. The practical message is modest: the benefit depends on regular use, it does not appear to free evenings, and longer notes are not necessarily better ones. Anyone adopting a scribe should still read and edit what it produces.
- Expect time savings only with consistent use of an AI scribe.
- Review and edit every AI-drafted note before signing; longer is not more accurate.
- Obtain patient consent for ambient recording in line with local policy.
- Do not assume a scribe will reduce after-hours documentation on its own.
Why it matters
Health systems are buying AI scribes on the promise of shorter evenings that this study did not find.
Don't overread it
This was an observational quality improvement study; it did not measure note accuracy or patient outcomes.
The statistics, in plain English
A saving of 1.21 minutes per note is precise, but over 20 patients that is about 25 minutes a day, and only for those who used the tool heavily.
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