What should a clinic ask about any documentation option?

Run the same six questions with your physicians and with every option on the table: an in-house scribe, an AI tool built into the EHR, a third-party AI scribe, an outside human scribe service, or a combination. 1. How many minutes each day does each physician actually receive when the time is measured rather than estimated? 2. Who reviews the note before the physician signs it, and how long does that review take? 3. How many of our physicians use it in most of their visits? 4. What happens on a day it is not available? 5. How well does it handle our specialty and our most complex visits? 6. How much does it cost per physician when you take into account the time it takes to set it up and review it? A short pilot involving one or two doctors will typically answer them within a few weeks.

How much actual time do ambient AI scribes save?

In a randomized trial carried out at UW Health, ambient AI was associated with about 30 fewer minutes of documentation each day per provider. A multisite study published in JAMA in April 2026 compared more than 1,800 clinicians who used AI scribes with 6,770 clinicians who did not. The use of AI scribes was linked to 13 fewer minutes of total EHR time and 16 fewer minutes of documentation time over an eight-hour period of scheduled care, reductions of 3% and 10% respectively. There was no significant difference in after-hours EHR time between the two groups.

Who checks the note before the physician signs it?

Every option ends the same way: the physician reviews and signs the note. What changes is how much the physician has to fix. In a UC Davis pilot published in JMIR Medical Informatics, physicians assessed 356 AI-generated notes: 18% had accidental omissions, 11.5% had hallucinations, and 9.3% had accidental inclusions. Approximately 95% of the notes had no significant errors, although 5.3% contained errors that would pose a serious risk if not corrected. Review time is the hidden line item in every AI scribe budget.

Are your doctors really employing the tool?

Usage determines the results. In the JAMA multisite study, clinicians who used AI scribes in more than half of their visits saw about a 2x reduction in EHR time and a 3x reduction in documentation time, but only 32% of users reached that level. Pull usage by physician for the last 30 days; if use is uneven, it is worth asking why: specialty fit, note format, editing time, or patients who prefer not to be recorded.

What happens when the scribe or software isn't there?

In-house scribes go on vacation, fall ill, and leave the job, and software can experience outages, struggle in noisy environments, and depends on patients agreeing to be recorded. If either the scribe or the software is not available, the doctor completes the charting. Count the clinic days in the most recent quarter on which a doctor documented without the usual support, and ask about coverage for each option before you need it.

Does this align with your area of specialty and your most difficult visits?

With clear-cut visits, many AI programs generate clean drafts; complexity is where the options begin to differ. In the JAMA multisite study, primary care clinicians achieved the greatest time savings, while the differences for surgical specialties were not statistically significant. Pick the five visit types that take your physicians the longest to document and ask each option to show how it handles those. Specialty-trained human scribes learn the terminology, templates, and preferences of a specific physician, which matters most in the visits AI finds hardest.

How much does each option actually cost per physician?

AI subscription prices vary from low-cost self-serve tools to enterprise products priced by quote with implementation fees, while human scribe services are usually charged hourly for the hours the office schedules. A fair comparison also counts the physician's time spent reviewing and correcting drafts and unused licenses. Prepare a one-page comparison per physician listing the monthly cost, minutes saved each day (measured), review minutes each day, and the proportion of visits covered. The lowest subscription price does not always mean the lowest cost per completed note.

Is it possible for a human scribe to work with the AI tool that you currently have?

Yes. In a paired model, the AI records the encounter and prepares the first draft of the note. A trained scribe then reviews that draft, fills in any omissions, corrects any errors, applies the physician's template and specialty guidelines, and enters the note into the EHR. The physician then reviews and signs a completed note rather than editing the original draft. The practice keeps its AI investment, physicians spend less time on review, and a human check sits between the draft and the signature.

Where does this leave your practice?

Ambient AI is a useful tool, and it keeps improving. Human medical scribe services for clinics remain a strong option because they cover what AI still finds hard: careful review, complete notes, specialty nuance, and consistent use from one physician to the next. For many practices, the best result comes from using both. Running the six questions with one or two physicians over a few weeks gives the practice its own numbers, not vendor estimates.

The Breakroom | A Blog for Physicians and Medical Professionals

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