By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton | U.S. News & World Report
Ardent Health has turned to AI to help reduce physicians’ paperwork load and improve the patient experience.
On average, physicians spend 15.5 hours on paperwork and administration each week, including nine hours on electronic health record documentation alone, according to one 2023 survey.
With hospitals and clinics across six states, Ardent Health was not immune to the administrative demands facing health systems today. Confronting physician burnout and a patient experience strained by documentation-heavy workflows, the health system looked to AI as a way to ease the burden.
The result? Physicians are spending less time on documentation and more time with patients.
Mounting Administrative Burdens
Ardent conducted an initial review of its caregivers’ workflows in 2024, which showed that its clinicians were spending around 200 minutes per eight hours of visits on charting, according to Anika Gardenhire, Ardent’s chief digital and transformation officer.
So in February of 2025, the healthcare provider teamed up with Ambience Healthcare to deploy an Al platform that listens to patient visits, takes notes and supports physicians with medical coding. The technology, implemented in September, helped doctors fully focus on their patients and reduced the risk of billing issues.
Gardenhire says the platform records conversations with patients through the doctor’s phone and then uploads it to the patient’s electronic health record. She adds that Ambience can be used for any task that involves having to summarize and capture a patient’s information and play it back later.
Results That Speak for Themselves
Since deploying the platform, Ardent’s clinicians have been using Ambience for 90% of patient encounters, resulting in a 35% reduction in charting time and a 7% increase in patient face time, Gardenhire says.
Patient feedback has been positive, she says, with many reporting that their provider faced them rather than a laptop during their appointment, and took more time to explain things.
The platform has also freed up clinicians to spend more time with their family and on their hobbies outside of work, Gardenhire says.
“Being able to see that long-time patient that's been with you forever, who might need to be an add-on today, or being able to stop by the hospital to see somebody who got admitted, doesn't necessarily mean you have to give up your personal quality of life,” she says.