An evaluation of almost 7,500 outpatient consultations at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service has found ambient AI documentation can reduce clinicians’ administrative burden and improve the quality of clinical notes, while reinforcing the need for strong governance and clinician oversight to manage hallucinations and bias.
Published in BMC Health Services Research, the evaluation examined Lyrebird Health’s ambient AI documentation platform over 16 weeks across 19 outpatient specialties, involving 100 clinicians and 7,499 patient consultations.
Of survey respondents, 84% reported that ambient listening technology had a positive impact on their efficiency, alleviating administrative burden and releasing time for other high-value tasks. 79% of staff survey respondents also reported that the technology improved the quality of consultations through increased focus on patients.
Patient feedback was also positive, with 68 per cent saying clinicians spent more time talking directly with them during consultations.
However, the evaluation also found almost half of surveyed clinicians encountered AI hallucinations at least once during the trial, while 16 per cent reported potential bias in generated documentation.
The researchers said these findings underscore the importance of clinician review and robust governance before AI-generated notes become part of the medical record.
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