Ambient listening implementation in primary care and changes in electronic health record documentation metrics: Pre–post study of an ambient listening tool

Objective Ambient listening with subsequent artificial intelligence enabled medical record documentation is changing how physicians interact with the electronic health record (EHR). We studied primary care physician use, documentation time, and changes in note metrics associated with ambient listening technology. Methods We calculated the percentage of physicians adopting the ambient listening tool, Abridge. Note input contributed by Abridge was determined by the percentage of total characters in generated notes. Using the Epic EHR Signal metrics, we analyzed the change in note documentation time and note length for Abridge users before and after they implemented Abridge in their note generation process. Results The percentage of physicians using Abridge increased from 15% to 50% in 8 weeks. Adoption was also reflected in the percentage of the note attributable to the use of ambient listening technology. Note content generated by Abridge tripled, from 5% to 15% over the same 8 weeks. After Abridge adoption, 332 primary care physicians had a mean time of 4.16 minutes [confidence interval (CI) 95%; 3.86, 4.46] time in notes per note in a paired comparison to 5.11 minutes [CI 95%; 4.75, 5.47] per note prior to Abridge. Mean time saved per note after Abridge was 0.95 minutes [CI 95%; 0.48, 1.42, p < 0.0001], an 18.6% reduction in time. Mean note length for Abridge adopters increased by 238 characters [CI 95%; 89, 387, p < 0.0001] from a pre-implementation mean of 4404 characters per note (+5.4%). Conclusion Ambient listening had rapid uptake and widespread use by physicians in primary care. It was also associated with a significant decrease in time in notes.