Have AI Scribes Proven ROI Yet?

A new report says healthcare organizations are finding value in using ambient AI to reduce burnout and stress, but financial value is harder to assess

Ambient AI scribes may be all the rage in healthcare these days, with more than 60 different products on the market. But are they showing ROI?

A new report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) says AI scribes “are poised to become one of the fastest technology adoptions in healthcare history.” But as a task force convened by PHTI learned, healthcare executives may be rushing to implement these tools before determining their value.

The challenge, as always, comes in the definition of value. Many healthcare leaders who are using AI scribes report success in reducing physician stress and burnout, a key metric in today’s healthcare environment. Yet with health systems and hospitals struggling to contain costs, there’s a financial aspect to technology implementations that has yet to be realized with scribes.

According to the PHTI report, the task force launched with a question: Can a new generation of AI solutions that target administrative tasks and day-to-day workflow improvements address the previously intractable tension between increasing productivity and reducing provider burnout?

The answer is, well, complicated.

“Ambient scribes appear to reduce burnout and cognitive load and improve the patient experience,” the report stated. “The current evidence for ambient scribe improving productivity directly by reducing documentation time is mixed, though as the technology and implementation processes improve, time savings may become more apparent. Given the costs and limited evidence to date on ROI, however, there is a real risk that as ambient scribe adoption continues apace, health systems will implement solutions in ways that add to overall costs of care.”

The task force noted that healthcare technology market has often evolved faster than the effort to produce meaningful results, and this is certainly true in AI. Healthcare providers are jumping on the bandwagon and piloting new tools and services well before they have a good idea about ROI—or, in many cases, governance.

This experience is also causing healthcare leaders to step back and assess what value means to them. Faced with a declining workforce and pressures to reduce workflows to keep the people they have, some executives are pointing out that a tool that can improve a clinician’s work-life balance and reduce stress does produce positive ROI, and financial savings will show up in reduced turnover and hiring and training costs, not to mention morale. And that, in turn, will positively affect clinical outcomes.

But that will take time. And that seems to be the one factor that many overlook.

“There are many other areas of health system administration ripe for transformation with AI-enabled technologies,” the task force concluded. “AI in RCM is likely to be the next significant area of at-scale solution deployment, and task force members anticipate significant progress in AI for call centers, quality and regulatory reporting, inbox management, and CDS in the coming years. “

“The promise of AI in each of these areas is compelling but the ability to deliver on that promise will take time, enhanced technological sophistication, and organizational maturation,” the report said. “The experiences of early adopters can inform the broader industry on whether the investment in these technologies is warranted, how to measure impact and track progress, and which technologies are delivering outsized returns.”