Enhancing clinical documentation with ambient artificial intelligence: a quality improvement survey assessing clinician perspectives on work burden, burnout, and job satisfaction

Objective: This study evaluates the impact of an ambient artificial intelligence (AI) documentation platform on clinicians' perceptions of documentation workflow. Materials and Methods: An anonymous pre- and non-anonymous post-implementation survey evaluated ambulatory clinician perceptions on impact of Abridge, an ambient AI documentation platform. Outcomes included clinical documentation burden, work after-hours, clinician burnout, and work satisfaction. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and proportional odds logistic regression to compare changes for concordant questions across pre- and post-surveys. Covariate analysis examined effect of specialty type and duration of AI tool usage. Results: Survey response rates were 51.9% (93/181) pre-implementation and 74.4% (99/133) post-implementation. Clinician perception of ease of documentation workflow (OR = 6.91, 95% CI: 3.90-12.56, P <.001) and in completing notes associated with usage of the AI tool (OR = 4.95, 95% CI: 2.87-8.69, P <.001) was significantly improved. Most respondents agreed that the AI tool decreased documentation burden, decreased the time spent documenting outside clinical hours, reduced burnout risk, and increased job satisfaction, with 48% agreeing that an additional patient could be seen if needed. Clinician specialty type and number of days using the AI tool did not significantly affect survey responses. Discussion: Clinician experience and efficiency was improved with use of Abridge across a breadth of specialties. Conclusion: An ambient AI documentation platform had tremendous impact on improving clinician experience within a short time frame. Future studies should utilize validated instruments for clinician efficiency and burnout and compare impact across AI platforms.