Tampa General Hospital is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce bureaucracy and elevate the patient experience.

Through a partnership with Nuance, more than 500 physicians affiliated with Tampa General will begin using Dax Copilot to increase productivity. The ambient listening tool is used to capture a patient story securely, including details of symptoms, observations and experiences. With the help of AI, it automatically converts multi-party conversations into specialty-specific clinical summaries in seconds.

“Simply put, documentation is necessary, but it’s a growing burden on all involved,” said John Couris, CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “At Tampa General Hospital, we’re not willing to settle for the status quo. We’re focused on pursuing innovations to transform the way we deliver care. With the help of AI, we’re easing the burden of documentation on providers and in turn giving them the ability and the additional time to focus on our top priority, our patients. It’s initiatives like these that set Tampa General apart from the rest and contribute to the world-class care we deliver.”

The technology was made available for full integration into the Epic electronic health record (EHR) system earlier this year, making Tampa General one of the early adopters of this AI tool that has proven to support physicians while elevating patient care.

The tool is not a voice-to-text transcription. Instead, it is AI-powered and identifies voices, captures patient history, detects key observations, summarises takeaways and works seamlessly with existing platforms already used at Tampa General. The technology adheres to the standards of security and privacy and is in accordance with federal HIPAA requirements.

The benefits of this technology are not just felt by physicians, but also by patients. The use of technology to reduce documentation enables providers to spend more time with their patients with a greater focus on their needs.

“As the documentation burden on providers grows, they have less and less time to spend with their patients and they are often tethered to their keyboards in exam rooms,” said Nishit Patel, chief medical informatics officer at Tampa General. “With the power of emerging technologies, like AI and ambient listening, we can finally free our physicians and providers from this administrative burden and allow them to focus on what they do best at Tampa General: deliver world-class, patient-centred care.”

Dax Copilot is reported (www.nuance.com/healthcare/campaign/demo/nuance-dax-copilot-for-epic.html) to reduce documentation time by half. Nearly three-quarters of physicians who use the technology experience a reduction in feelings of burnout and fatigue. Most patients (85%) say their physician is more personable and conversational.

Tampa General Hospital (www.tgh.org), a 981-bed, not-for-profit, academic health system, is one of the largest hospitals in America and is the region’s only centre for level-one trauma and comprehensive burn care.