Evaluation of Heidi AI Scribing Technology in Improving Efficiency and Documentation Quality in Frailty Services

Introduction: Traditional clinical documentation methods were time-consuming and prone to inconsistency within the Frailty Team at City Health Care Partnership (CHCP), affecting productivity across workstreams including Urgent Community Response (UCR) and Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA). Heidi, an AI scribe developed by Heidi Health UK, generates clinical notes and structured care plans by interpreting patient-clinician discussions, reducing administrative burden and improving note quality.

Methods: York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of Heidi’s impact on time savings, documentation quality, staff experience, and resource use, adopting a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) approach. The evaluation included pre- and post-implementation staff surveys (n=34), user interviews, clinical audit data across 153 consultations, and analysis of usage metrics from the Heidi platform.

Results: Between 1st July and 31st August, 4,089 notes were created across 3,504 sessions. The average time writing consultation notes reduced from 29.7 minutes without Heidi to 18.3 minutes with Heidi, saving an average of 11.4 minutes per consultation. This reduced administrative time from 38% to 23% of patient management time. Clinical audits demonstrated improvements in documentation quality, including a decrease in spelling errors (from 56% to 18%) and more consistent use of professional language. Staff reported reduced cognitive load and enhanced patient engagement. The CBA showed a positive economic return, with annual time savings of 3,942 minutes valued at £313,484 and a cost-benefit ratio of 5.1 in Year 1.

Conclusions: Heidi has effectively embedded into Frailty Team workflows at CHCP, demonstrating significant time savings, improved note quality, and a positive economic return on investment. The technology frees up clinician capacity enabling Protected Time for Learning (PTL) sessions and reduces cognitive burden, supporting a more sustainable working pattern for staff.