Doctors Stop Typing as AI Takes Over the Chart
AI scribes draft patient notes, saving doctors 15,700 hours yearly.
In brief
AI scribes draft patient notes, saving doctors 15,700 hours yearly. Downstate Medical Center uses AI to draft patient notes, cutting documentation time for doctors. Originally reported by Pymnts.
Downstate Medical Center Pilot
University Hospital at Downstate uses AI scribes to draft notes for 900+ patient visits since May 2026.
“The Brooklyn academic medical center is the first to use Sunrise Thread AI, which listens to the conversation and generates a structured clinical note inside the Sunrise electronic health record (EHR).”
Health Systems Save Time
Permanente Medical Group logged 2.5 million uses and 15,700 hours saved, while Intermountain Health cut note time by 27%.
“The American Medical Association found that surveyed AI scribe programs saved about 15,000 clinician hours across participating health systems.”
AI Shapes Hospital Billing
The same recording that spares doctors from typing starts shaping hospital payments and coding.
“From there, it feeds continued care, coding and billing.”
Vendors Expand AI Tools
Athenahealth added Microsoft Dragon Copilot alongside Abridge and Suki for inpatient and emergency care.
“A note the physician approves once and the system carries through coding and billing is a different product from a faster transcript.”
Doctors Report High Demand
Downstate’s chief information officer called the tool 'more robust than others while offering greater ease of use'.
“Dilip Nath, chief information officer at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, said the hospital found the tool 'more robust than others while offering greater ease of use.'”
At a glance
Downstate Medical Center uses AI to draft patient notes, cutting documentation time for doctors.
