Ambience Healthcare launches AI chat tool designed specifically for nurses

Nurses spend up to 41% of their time on documentation, often drowning in patient data scattered across electronic health records. Ambience Healthcare thinks it has a solution.

The company just rolled out Chart Chat for Nursing, which it calls the first AI tool built specifically for inpatient nurses that plugs directly into electronic health records. Cleveland Clinic is the first health system to test the tool.

How does it work?

Chart Chat lets nurses ask questions about patients in plain language. The AI pulls information from multiple sources in the EHR and provides answers with full citations.

The tool can access:

• Physician progress notes
• Hospital policies
• Patient documentation
• Recent lab results
• Current orders

When the AI doesn't have enough information or finds conflicting data, it tells the nurse directly rather than guessing. The company uses real-time monitoring and nurse feedback to check response quality.

"Nurses aren't struggling with a lack of information, they're drowning in it," said Tanha Kabir, Ambience's Head of Product. She told Fierce Healthcare that no similar commercial AI tool exists for nurses right now.

Why does it matter?

The numbers tell the story. A 2022 study found US nurses spend between 25% to 41% of their shift time on documentation. That's a lot of time away from patients.

"We know that nurses can spend a significant portion of their shift in the EHR," Kabir said. "Reducing that burden has meaningful downstream effects, more time at the bedside, smoother care coordination, and ultimately safer patient care."

Early users say the tool helps them understand patients better and saves time, especially with complex cases where patients have long hospital stays. Nurses find it particularly useful for:

• Preparing for shift handoffs
• Tracking care trends
• Getting quick answers to clinical questions

"The overall sentiment has been that this is a tool nurses are genuinely excited about and want to use, which is rare in healthcare technology," Kabir said.

The context

Most AI tools in healthcare target physicians, not nurses. The few that do exist focus on documentation help rather than making sense of existing data.

Ambience started in 2020 with AI-powered documentation software that records appointments and creates automated notes. The company secured $243 million in Series C funding last July - one of the biggest health tech raises of 2023.

The nursing tool represents Ambience's first step into what executives call their "purpose-built nursing roadmap," with more capabilities planned ahead. Last fall, the company also launched an ICD-10 assistant for inpatient care, showing its push to support more healthcare staff beyond doctors.

Cleveland Clinic's pilot will help shape how Ambience develops future nursing tools. The health system's feedback will guide the company's broader plans to support allied health and nursing staff with AI assistants.