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- By Simeon Brown, Health Minister
Every emergency department in the country now has access to an artificial intelligence (AI) scribe tool, marking a major milestone in reducing administrative burden and freeing up frontline clinicians to focus more on patient care.
This technology uses artificial intelligence to automatically document patient-clinician conversations in real time by recording consultations and generating draft clinical notes, referral letters, and follow-up summaries.
This helps free up doctors’ time so they can see and treat more patients in emergency departments.
AI scribe technology is now live in all emergency departments across New Zealand, with the rapid rollout to 1250 ED doctors and frontline staff complete – 250 more than originally announced following a successful pilot last year.
This places New Zealand among the fastest health systems in the world to move from pilot to nationwide frontline AI use in emergency departments, helping clinicians spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.
Results from the initial pilot highlighted the practical impact of the technology. Doctors using the AI tool were able to see, on average, one additional patient per shift as a result of time saved on documentation.
That means faster care for patients and shorter waiting times in our emergency departments, while also reducing pressure and cognitive load on busy clinicians. Early feedback from the nationwide rollout has also been encouraging.
After one month of use at Middlemore Hospital’s emergency department, 80 per cent of surveyed staff said the AI scribe improved productivity or efficiency, and 84 per cent said it had a positive impact on their overall experience and well-being during a shift.
Following strong interest from clinicians, Health New Zealand is now progressing approval of more than 1000 additional licences, predominantly for use by mental health teams.
Delivering modern digital tools that make a real difference for patients and staff is a priority for the Government.
