BayCare Pilots AI-Assisted Voice Technology for Nurses

CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoping to ease the burden of nurses at the bedside, BayCare Health System is now piloting artificial-intelligence-assisted voice technology to transform the way nurses carry out clinical documentation. The project, launched last month with a team at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, aims to transform how nurses document clinical assessments and find important patient information. 

The pilot using Aiva Health's Nurse Assistant is the latest example of BayCare's commitment to innovation to provide the best patient care and support its workforce. BayCare is also working with other vendors to develop voice technology in hopes of finding the best solutions to help care teams streamline their workflow and improve patient interactions. 

"We are excited to be at the forefront of how technology can improve health care, not just for patients, but also for those nurses and team members delivering care," said Stephanie Conners, BayCare's president and CEO. "Finding ways to better support clinical documentation is a win for everyone involved and allows nurses and our entire care teams more time and energy to focus on our patients."  

BayCare has already begun using AI-assisted software for physicians in their offices. Care in the hospital setting presents a different set of challenges. Multiple providers and team members assess and monitor each individual patient over the course of a hospital stay – and they rely on each other's timely and accurate assessments to ensure quality care.  

"Bringing voice enabled artificial intelligence to the bedside will not only save nurses' time but also has the potential to improve the efficiency and efficacy of patient care," said Nicole Gitney, BayCare's vice president for nursing informatics. "By simplifying documentation and reducing cognitive overload, this technology aims to improve nurse satisfaction and allow them to focus more on improving patient outcomes."  

The St. Anthony's project launched in December with a select group of team members using the Aiva Health app on BayCare-issued iPhones to access electronic records and speak clinical updates directly into secure software. Onscreen verification of the transcription allows them to confirm accuracy before saving to the patient's chart.

By partnering with developers, BayCare and its team members have the opportunity to suggest functionality improvements as well as be among the first to demonstrate how voice-enabled artificial intelligence technology can streamline clinical documentation, reduce the burden of charting and improve overall care delivery. Already in the St. Anthony's pilot project, it has reduced the need for caregivers to move computers between patient rooms. 

"The nurses and the patient care techs will be able to go into a patient room and chart in real time," using their voice and the artificial-intelligence-assisted technology, said Liza Redmond, a St. Anthony's Hospital nurse manager on the cardiac medical unit that is participating in the pilot project. "Being able to use this voice technology is a game changer for everyone in health care."

About BayCare

BayCare is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 16 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. The system is West Central Florida's largest provider of behavioral health and pediatric services and its provider group, BayCare Medical Group, is one of the largest in the region. BayCare's diverse network of ambulatory services includes laboratories, imaging, surgical centers, BayCare Urgent Care locations, wellness centers and one of Florida's largest home care agencies, BayCare HomeCare. BayCare's mission is to improve the health of all it serves through community-owned, health care services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more information, visit BayCare.org.

About Aiva

Aiva is the voice assistant for better care. Aiva's AI-powered Nurse Assistant lets nurses chart in real-time using conversational voice or text, saving them time and making their data instantly available for clinical decision making. Aiva's companion product, Patient Assistant, is in more than 10,000 acute and post-acute rooms across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to the EHR, Patient Assistant integrates with existing hospital systems like interpreter services, work orders, dietary, patient education and Smart Room devices -- all integrations that could be brought to Nurse Assistant in the future. Aiva is based in Los Angeles and can be found at aivahealth.com.

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SOURCE BayCare Health System