New AI Tool Cuts Nursing Documentation Time by 20%

The technology is already live in inpatient units at Mercy hospitals in St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, with plans to expand to more locations later this year.

St. Louis-based Mercy has joined forces with Microsoft to develop what both organizations describe as the first commercially available ambient AI solution for nurses, designed to reduce administrative load and improve patient care.

The new tool, part of Microsoft Dragon Copilot, captures and documents nurse–patient conversations with consent and automatically uploads the data to the electronic health record (EHR).

The technology is already live in inpatient units at Mercy hospitals in St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, with plans to expand to more locations later this year.

Mercy is one of eight U.S. health systems collaborating with Microsoft and frontline nurses to help shape the AI system. At Mercy, medical-surgical nurses tested the tool by narrating their care in real time, providing feedback to refine its performance.

Early findings from Microsoft and Mercy show strong results:

• 21% reduction in documentation latency
• 65% improvement in perceived timeliness
• 8 to 24 minutes saved per shift for frequent users

Additional outcomes include a 29% reduction in overtime, a 30% increase in mobile platform use, and a 4.5% rise in patient satisfaction.

The AI initiative underscores how hospitals are leveraging technology to ease nurse workload pressures while enhancing clinical efficiency and care delivery.

Stay tuned for more such updates on Digital Health News