UChicago Medicine, based in Chicago, is scaling up its use of AI technology from Abridge to streamline clinical workflows and enhance patient care.
After a successful pilot involving 200 physicians, the health system has broadened access to Abridge's generative AI platform, which is designed to streamline clinical documentation. Currently available to 550 providers, the platform is set to support nearly 1,000 clinicians, including emergency department staff, by early 2025.
"We began with a three-month pilot involving 200 physicians, from July to October," Sachin D. Shah, MD, chief medical information officer at UChicago Medicine, told Becker's. "Based on the key metrics we followed, we secured enterprise funding to expand the program. We've since added another 350 providers, and we're launching a pilot in our emergency department next week."
Measuring success in ambulatory and emergency settings
UChicago Medicine's initial pilot focused on ambulatory care, but the program is now extending to emergency department clinicians. The organization tracks several metrics to evaluate the technology's impact in both settings.
"In the emergency department, one of the biggest metrics is 'left without being seen,' which reflects wait times and throughput," Dr. Shah said. "We'll also monitor documentation time, cognitive load, provider burnout, and patient experience scores — all of which we tracked during the ambulatory pilot."
Pilot results: Improved patient and provider outcomes
The initial pilot yielded improvements in patient and provider experiences. Patient satisfaction scores, based on Press Ganey surveys, showed increases of 2% to 4.5% in areas such as provider communication, care decision involvement, and listening.
"Even among the same clinicians, patient experience scores were higher during encounters where the technology was used," Dr. Shah said.
Clinician wellness also improved notably. A pre- and post-survey of pilot participants revealed a 47% reduction in cognitive load, a 58% increase in undivided attention, and a 37% decrease in time spent working outside of regular hours. Additionally, 66% of clinicians reported improved job satisfaction, and 90% said the initiative made them feel valued by the health system.
"There aren't many interventions that have this kind of impact on clinical teams," Dr. Shah said. "The provider wellness outcomes exceeded our expectations, and the patient experience improvements were a pleasant surprise."
Boosting productivity and access
The technology has also improved productivity and patient access. Clinicians using the system saw a 1.5% reduction in unfilled appointments and an increase of 0.5 to 0.6 completed appointments per session.
"That translates to about eight additional patients per month per provider," Dr. Shah said. "This additional capacity makes it easier to accommodate urgent patient needs without increasing the documentation burden."
The program also reduced the average time to close patient encounters, further contributing to efficiency.
"These improvements help ensure that we can maintain high-quality care while meeting growing demand," Dr. Shah said.
Looking ahead
As UChicago Medicine prepares to integrate more clinicians into the program, Dr. Shah emphasized the importance of measuring and refining the technology's impact across different clinical settings.
"Our goal is to leverage this technology to support clinicians and improve both provider and patient experiences," he said. "We're excited to see how it performs in the emergency department and to continue expanding its benefits across our health system."
UChicago Medicine is also working closely with Abridge to refine the technology based on provider feedback.