How Abridge Delivers Scaled Value for Large and Complex Health Systems
Health systems stressed by labor shortages, tight margins, and clinician burnout need technology that delivers real impact—immediately.
With Abridge, return on investment (ROI) is more encompassing than improving work relative value units (wRVUs), increasing operational efficiencies, and reducing clinician recruitment and retention costs. It's also what happens when clinicians feel joy again, when patients feel heard, and when health systems eliminate impossible backlogs and unsustainable workflows.
Three large and complex health systems that have implemented Abridge enterprise-wide share their own, unique ways of accounting for and measuring ROI. Here's how they’re doing it.
Reclaiming Joy and Reducing Friction
When Johns Hopkins Medicine, one of the most-storied and respected academic health systems in the world, deployed Abridge, joy was a critical component of ROI.
“We were looking for something that brought a spark to the eye that was just pure joy,” said Deanna Hanisch, Vice President Health IT, Johns Hopkins Medicine. “I've spent my career in healthcare IT, and very rarely have I seen a clinician look at a technology the same way I see my nine-year-old look at a Squishmallow.”
While “joy” is not a metric health systems regularly track, it does lead to measurable impact. Clinicians began verbalizing more during visits, and patient satisfaction scores ticked up—by about five percentage points. In addition to delivering measurable ROI, that joy sparked cascading clinician adoption.
“The best advocates for new tools are people using them,” said Hanisch. “When the platform is good enough, adoption will happen naturally.”
Hanisch envisions a future filled with even more joy from Johns Hopkins Medicine clinicians with new Abridge capabilities: additional electronic health record context and relevant clinical insights at the point of care, in real-time, to support clinical decision-making. All targeted at bringing the joy back to practicing medicine, empowering clinicians to operate at the tops of their licenses.
A Trusted Partner for Long-Term Change
When Corewell Health, the largest health system in Michigan with over 12,000 clinicians working at 21 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient and post-acute locations, chose to deploy Abridge across the enterprise, the initial goal was to implement an AI platform that would make clinicians’ lives easier.
The results were immediate:
Meaningful improvements in clinician satisfaction was just the first step on Corewell Health’s long roadmap, which included revenue cycle improvements and support for increased operational efficiency. With Abridge, the health system gained more than a vendor—it gained a long-term partner.
“We wanted a platform, not just a point solution,” said Daniel Smith, Vice President, Medical Informatics. “We wanted a partner that could also support revenue cycle, coders, and our CDI team. The transparency that Abridge brought to the partnership gave us confidence in the long-term ROI.”
Solving for Time, Cognitive Load, and Burnout
At another large integrated healthcare delivery system serving more than 1.3 million patients in the midwest, the mandate was clear: innovate now, not later. With margins under pressure and backlogs growing, the health system needed technology that could drive impact immediately.
“We’re seeing a 14% increase in wRVUs. Providers can clear through their backlogs—especially in specialty areas. That kind of productivity increase is worth millions to the bottom line,” reported the health system’s technology and innovation leader.
Financial ROI only told part of the value story: Clinicians who used Abridge started going home on time. Stress levels dropped with many saying it was extending their careers by years. One clinician stated it clearly: “This has lengthened my career by at least five years.”
With clinicians spending less time documenting, they have more mental space, and the organization's leadership is thinking about more ways their clinicians can deliver value to the community—and beyond.
“We’re solving for time, and then we’re solving for brainwidth, so what if we could give clinicians space to be researchers again? To think creatively?” asked the technology leader. “That’s how we bring about the next generation of medicine.”
By saving time and “brainwidth” (also known as “cognitive load”), Abridge enables clinicians to test ideas, pursue research, and do more to push the boundaries of delivering exceptional care.
Conclusion
The Abridge generative AI platform for clinical conversations delivers value and ROI for more than 100 health systems, including some of the largest and most complex in the U.S. For some, that ROI is primarily time, joy, and connection to clinicians. For others, the focus is on financial ROI and operational efficiencies. Whatever the need, Abridge is a valued partner, helping health systems reimagine what’s possible—today, not decades from now.
