In the heart of Chicago, Esperanza Health Centers has always been more than a network of clinics; it’s a promise to deliver high-quality, accessible care to the community it serves. But even the most dedicated clinicians can feel the weight of administrative work. Between back-to-back appointments, physicians often found themselves spending long hours completing notes after their patients had gone home.
An internal survey confirmed the need to reduce documentation time and improve note closure rates to boost overall efficiency and provider workflow satisfaction. The leadership team recognized the need for a more effective approach, one that would restore time for care without disrupting their existing workflows.
Listening to the Problem, Not Just Recording It
Esperanza’s leaders sought a solution that could adapt to their technology ecosystem, not the other way around. Their clinicians used the athenahealth EMR, but they also wanted a flexible tool that could work as an independent App or integrated with an EMR.
That’s when they discovered Sunoh.ai, an ambient AI scribe designed to listen to natural patient–provider conversations and generate structured summaries. Using advanced voice recognition, the AI medical scribe organizes notes into sections such as History of Present Illness, Assessment, and Plan, saving providers from hours of typing.
Sunoh.ai’s seamless athenahealth integration, powered by SMART on FHIR and oAuth 2.0, allows clinicians to launch the app directly from the patient chart, review summaries, and export key details into their EMR. It fits naturally into their workflow, no extra clicks, no new screens to learn.
A Clinician’s Perspective: From After-Hours Notes to Same-Day Closure
For providers at Esperanza, the difference was immediate. Conversations that once turned into hours of late-night documentation were now summarized automatically and ready for review before the end of the visit.
After implementing Sunoh.ai, Esperanza measured the results across an eight-week study:
- Note Closure Rate improved from 59.2% to 72.5%
- Documentation Time dropped from 18.3 to 16.3 minutes per encounter
“For our top three participating providers, Sunoh.ai has reduced documentation time by two minutes per encounter, lowering the documentation time per encounter by roughly 11%, and increasing same-day encounter closure rates by 22%,” said Nish Shivnani, VP of Information Technology at Esperanza Health Centers. “These improvements highlight that using Sunoh.ai has significantly reduced our providers’ post-visit documentation time, enabling them to close encounters quickly and conveniently on the same day.”
What used to be an after-hours chore became part of the natural flow of care.
An IT Perspective: Seamless, Secure, and Scalable
From an IT standpoint, the simplicity of Sunoh.ai’s athenahealth integration was just as impactful as its clinical benefits. Once the integration request was approved, Esperanza’s team was live within days, with no major infrastructure changes and no workflow disruptions.
Clinicians could record through their desktop, mobile device, or browser app, and send summaries directly into the EMR. Sunoh.ai’s embedded SMART on FHIR launch even allows on-demand patient record queries, giving providers real-time access to medical summaries, allergies, and histories.
Most importantly, Esperanza’s IT team recognized that they were implementing a solution designed for flexibility, able to quickly and smoothly integrate with other systems or work independently.
As part of the athenahealth Marketplace, Sunoh.ai is available to athenahealth’s growing network of healthcare providers to streamline clinical documentation and drastically improve provider workflows. The AI medical scribe is trusted by over 90,000 providers nationwide, underscoring its reliability and scalability across care settings.
A Leadership Perspective: Building a Future-Ready Practice
For leadership, the results spoke to more than just operational gains. By addressing documentation time and improving clinician efficiency, Esperanza was building a stronger, more sustainable model for community healthcare.
And this was only the beginning. With upcoming enhancements like support for Behavioral Health and Dental note types, and the ability to search external patient records, Sunoh.ai continues to evolve. These features ensure the platform remains both scalable and adaptable.
Across Every Role, a Shared Outcome
Every role at Esperanza, from clinicians to IT leaders to administrators, experienced the same transformation. Less time spent typing. More time spent caring.
Across every role, Sunoh helped Esperanza turn conversations into care, proving that efficiency and empathy can finally speak the same language.
Sunoh.ai didn’t just integrate with their EMR; it integrated into their mission.
To learn more about Esperanza’s implementation journey and detailed outcomes, download the full white paper.
