Physicians on the Use and Value of AI Medical Scribes

Why are medical scribes — and AI medical scribes — on the rise?

In an ideal — or perhaps an idealized — world, doctors would have plenty of time to think carefully about each case, have long conversations with every patient, wrap up their day’s work at 5 p.m., and head home to rest up and prepare for the next day.

In the real world, medical care works differently. Schedules are crowded. Every minute counts. Focus is essential. Mistakes can be costly.

And at the center of it all is the ever-present demands of administrative work, including documenting patient visits. Is it any wonder that doctors have long turned to medical scribes for some help?

Meeting and exceeding providers’ expectations

In a May 2024 survey of more than 120 healthcare professionals, eClinicalWorks found that half of respondents expected an AI medical scribe would save up to two hours of documentation time daily. The other half had higher expectations — two, three, or even more hours per day.

It turns out that those physicians have accurately diagnosed the potential of AI medical scribes, because customers’ experiences are showing that these scribes are, in fact, saving about two hours of documentation time per provider per day.

More generally, AI scribes appear to have been a pleasant surprise for physicians.

“While I don’t believe that AI is ready to replace physicians when it comes to the practice of medicine (now or possibly ever), I have been shocked at how far it has progressed in acting as a medical scribe,” Dr. Rebekah Bernard wrote in Medical Economics® this past February.

Implementing AI scribe technology at your practice

How, when, and to what degree a practice should adopt an AI-powered medical scribe will depend upon their size and specialty. But given the remarkable growth in adoption of such tools, there is little doubt that physicians are finding they can improve the efficiency and accuracy of documentation at their practice.

In fact, a forecast from Markets and Markets projects that the global marketplace for AI in healthcare is expected to grow from $20.9 billion this year to $148.4 billion by 2029. And this recent blog from Augnito outlines many of the advantages of AI scribes.

Most practices can benefit from following a simple three-step process:

• First, estimate how much time is spent on documentation and administrative tasks — it is usually more than staff think and can help make clear the cost-effectiveness of adopting AI solutions.
• Second, look for solutions that offer innovation, customization, and integration with other healthcare IT products and solutions. (Often, a practice can replace one or more such solutions that they may be using that are expensive and do not integrate smoothly with one another.)
• Third, having identified two or more vendors whose AI-powered solutions may meet their needs, a practice should take advantage of demos and free trials before making a commitment.

How is Sunoh.ai transforming healthcare?

While a relative newcomer in the AI medical scribe space, Sunoh is already trusted by more than 50,000 providers nationwide for handling documentation and other administrative tasks. Here are several key reasons:

Accuracy Saves Time

Using ambient listening technology, Sunoh listens to natural-language conversations between providers and their patients and creates both a transcript and a draft Progress Note, even placing the physician’s observations in the correct section of the Note. This gives providers a head start on completing their documentation on time.

Suitable for Specialties

While great for primary care, Sunoh is also used by a wide variety of specialists, including dentists, dermatologists, rheumatologists, and vision care providers. The software can create a traditional SOAP note or be adapted for use in other specialties, such as DAP Notes for Behavioral Health practices.

EHR Agnostic and Seamless

Sunoh is available as a standalone solution that integrates with leading EHR systems, seamlessly adding information to patient records in the EHR of the provider’s choice. It is tightly integrated with the eClinicalWorks EHR, providing fast and seamless incorporation of encounter information into the patient’s record.

Multi-lingual and multiple speakers

Sunoh can handle a wide variety of speaking styles, accents, and multiple languages — it is available for use in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. And it can handle documentation of encounters involving multiple speakers.

Restoring work/life balance

Perhaps most importantly, many practices report that Sunoh is saving them two hours of documentation time per provider per day, helping improve their efficiency, boost patient satisfaction, and helping doctors get back some personal time so that they can improve their work/life balance.

Customer success stories with Sunoh

Accurate transcriptions

Providers at Oregon’s Canyonville Health and Urgent Care were most impressed by the 99% accuracy of Sunoh’s documentation, which offered providers reassurance and helped free clinical staff to tend to other important tasks.

Gaining time and resources to expand services

In addition to the remarkable accuracy they have seen, providers at Canyonville have been able to use the time and resources they save with Sunoh to add chronic care management services.

Cutting time to complete documentation

Brownfield Regional Medical Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Texas, found that Sunoh dramatically cut down the time they needed to complete patients’ charts, from 30 days to having such work completed in just one day.

Winning back some ‘pajama time’

Goodtime Family Care, a small family medicine practice in Baltimore, saw a 50% reduction in documentation time after implementing Sunoh. That has enabled staff to complete documentation during office hours and achieve better work/life business.

Why is Sunoh.ai the go-to AI medical scribe?

Whether on a desktop, smartphone, or iPad, Sunoh is delivering the efficiency and value today’s practices need. Sunoh’s easy onboarding process and low cost—starting at just $1.25 per visit—make it clear that incorporating artificial intelligence tools in medicine today is achievable at any practice.

Here’s what you’ll experience when you book your demo. You’ll see how Sunoh.ai:

1. Listens to the patient/provider conversation to help document clinical information accurately and efficiently.
2. Generates a dialogue flow using AI and voice-recognition technology to create a transcript that captures all key points in the encounter.
3. Categorizes the summarized content into appropriate Progress Note sections and allows for reviewing and importing relevant data for clinical documentation.
4. Assists with order entry, capturing labs, imaging, procedures, medication orders, and follow-up visit details.
5. Sunoh streamlines the clinical documentation process by allowing healthcare providers to review summarized content for accuracy, modify it if necessary, and merge pre-configured defaults with a single click.

Getting started with Sunoh is simple. Click here to learn more about how Sunoh works. Ready to book a demo? Click here.