AI technology boosts face-to-face time with patients, earns Mercy national recognition for physician satisfaction
ST. LOUIS, July 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Mercy’s strategic and carefully planned use of artificial intelligence (AI) is making patients even happier with their care and doctors more satisfied with their work thanks to one key improvement – more meaningful face-to-face time.
Mercy’s soaring physician satisfaction scores, tied to AI-led innovation, caught the attention of KLAS Research, which helps health care organizations get deep insights into data. Mercy is one of four U.S. health care systems to earn 2025 KLAS Arch Collaborative Electronic Health Record (EHR) Breakthrough Recognition.
“This national recognition is a clear indicator that our caregivers are extremely satisfied, which in turn makes for happier patients,” said Dr. Todd Craig, Mercy vice president of clinical informatics. “There’s no doubt the work we are doing at Mercy is improving patient care and reducing physician and provider burnout.”
Much of the recent work is tied to an AI assistant that generates office notes in seconds after a patient leaves an exam room, enabling doctors to concentrate on patients instead of paperwork. The AI solution has an added bonus: Doctors finish their notes before they go home.
“This technology has been life altering for me personally and for my patients,” said Dr. Ryan Gotcher, a Mercy family medicine physician who says the Microsoft AI assistant shaves off at least an hour each day of patient documentation. “It means better care for my patients, and my patients absolutely love that I’m using it. I can now make meaningful eye contact with every patient and use my hands for emphasis. It gets me out from behind a computer screen and allows more face-to-face time with my patients.”
Patients agree.
“I have noticed the only time the computer is in use during my visit is to check on other doctors’ notes, records or test results or at the end of the visit to review/research questions or concerns that came up during the appointment,” said Brittany Wing, a Mercy patient. “The after-visit summaries are more concise and relevant and less like they were a standard ‘cut and paste/fill in the box’ form that some doctor notes seem to be.”
AI Saves Time
With a patient’s consent, DAX Copilot, which is now part of Microsoft Dragon Copilot, uses ambient voice recognition and generative AI to automatically and securely capture doctor-patient conversations that are then automatically uploaded to Mercy’s EHR. It automatically drafts clinical notes for the doctor to review and approve after each patient visit, giving physicians across Mercy more time in every appointment for direct patient interaction. The time saved also enables doctors to see more patients.
Mercy began using the technology more than a year ago, with additional doctors taking advantage of it since its launch. So far, it has freed physicians from administrative burdens and saved caregivers 108,000 hours across the Mercy system. And that’s just the beginning of unlocking the benefits of AI.
Beyond the direct benefits during working hours, the technology also helps doctors with improved performance by reducing job-related fatigue and promoting better work-life balance. Few patients realize doctors may spend extra hours every day, long after they’ve seen their last patient, catching up on paperwork.
“It’s a game changer,” said Dr. Damon Broyles, Mercy vice president of clinical innovation. “We actually have physicians who are so happy with it that they say, ‘Do not take this technology away from me or I will quit.’ Burnout is real for physicians, and DAX Copilot has reduced clinician burnout by 13% and makes it possible for us to see additional patients, which improves access to health care for our communities.”
Dr. Gotcher said it has cut his charting time by 77%.
“I would implore any provider struggling with burnout, charting issues or taking work home to try this life-changing tool,” said Dr. Gotcher, who also now serves on Mercy’s informatics team. “This technology has been the best thing to happen to my practice short of my nurse I’ve worked with for 10 years. I seriously mean this. Sometimes as humans we can get so busy that we keep doing things a certain way because that’s what we know, and we don’t feel we have time to learn a better way. It took me one hour to learn it. It’s that easy and it has saved me countless hours.”
Embracing Technology Early to Improve Care
KLAS determined Mercy’s breakthrough recognition by reviewing the Net EHR Experience Score (NEES) of 81 health systems. The new technology received positive feedback from patients, physicians and health care administrators.
Mercy’s results mirrored those from a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing physicians save an hour a day using an AI scribe.
Mercy was among the first health care systems in the U.S. to implement a comprehensive, fully integrated, single EHR across its entire system that provides real-time, paperless access to patient information and a record that follows each patient regardless of where they seek care at Mercy. That early technological commitment also sped up Mercy’s ability to nimbly and safely use AI and other technology to improve patient care.
Mercy is:
- One of Epic’s earliest and largest go-lives, pioneering a path the majority of U.S. health systems now follow
- The first U.S. health system to bring Epic’s AI-generated clinical note summarization into production, efficiently summarizing lengthy patient charts for quick review
- Among the first to use AI-driven predictive models, giving care teams a head start in leveraging AI for patient safety
- A pioneer in precision medicine, integrating genetic test results into the EHR for point-of-care decision support
“We’re never satisfied standing still,” said Dr. Broyles. “Mercy, like the Sisters of Mercy before us, is constantly setting the bar higher and moving forward because ultimately it means better care for our patients.”
Mercy, one of the 15 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation’s largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 50,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2024 alone, Mercy provided nearly half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.
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