One of the largest health systems in Maine is on a mission to use innovation to address some of the challenges being faced in healthcare today, especially for organizations serving rural populations.
A comprehensive non‑profit health system serving Maine’s Kennebec Valley, MaineGeneral Health (MGH) began looking at AI scribes in 2024. Their CIO, Mark St. John, knew that ambient AI had the potential to deliver measurable impact across the organization, especially for medical staff.
At the start of their search, they were looking at a leading scribe solution that had been recommended by other CIOs. “I’d been given some recommendations by my peers, and we were evaluating those,” said Mark. “Heidi was not on that initial list. Then, one of our physicians heard about the search and reached out. He'd been exploring Heidi since March 2024 and strongly recommended we take a look.”
While Heidi is the most adopted AI scribe in the world, being used in over 50 countries, the company had been building momentum quietly among leading large specialty groups, independent practices, and a few forward- thinking hospitals in the US. The physician advocated for Heidi as a solution for medical staff. Since the ultimate goal was to improve physician workflows, Mark agreed to take a look.
“Heidi was a platform that could deliver higher engagement and adoption,” he recalls. “After speaking with another large health system that had adopted Heidi, we decided to move ahead.”
The initial phase of the rollout was only offered to a handful of medical staff. It proved so successful that doctors began asking to join, leading to a 35% increase in numbers, with 98% of those early users actively adopting Heidi into their workflow.
Introduction
The burdens of documentation and billing impact all health systems in the US. More than half of physicians report that documentation is a leading cause of burnout, despite all the technology in use today. The same is true for revenue cycle management. While automation and electronic services have improved accuracy and speed, up to 15% of both pre-authorizations and claims are still denied the first time.
Like many health systems in the US, MaineGeneral is facing an unpredictable future. New budget policies and payment restructuring could mean lower reimbursement.
As one of Maine’s largest health systems, MaineGeneral Health serves patients across 88 cities and towns through multiple locations, including the Thayer Center for Health, the state’s largest outpatient facility, and the Alfond Center for Health, which has 198 inpatient beds. Recognizing that thriving in uncertain times would require new thinking, MaineGeneral’s leadership committed to an innovative approach to digital transformation.
“We were looking for a clinical AI partner, not just a scribe,” explains Mark. “The benefits to ambient AI are immediate with a reduction in documentation time and more focus on patients in the visit, but there is a bigger, long-term potential as well. We see ambient AI as a tool that can significantly reduce the administrative burden for physicians while also improving our clinical data and billing.”
The benefits are the result of high adoption and engagement. The initial phase of implementation expanded with medical staff interest in the platform. Of the 51 medical staff who asked to participate, 49 of them became active users of Heidi. Over 95% reported in a survey that they wanted to keep using Heidi and 89% would recommend it to their colleagues.
In addition to the tangible, quantifiable benefits, the feedback from medical staff was overwhelmingly positive. One family physician shared, “I'm using Heidi with every patient and I anticipate using it for as long as possible.”
We were looking for a clinical AI partner, not just a scribe. The benefits to ambient AI are immediate with a reduction in documentation time and more focus on patients in the visit, but there is a bigger, long-term potential as well. We see ambient AI as a tool that can significantly reduce the administrative burden for physicians while also improving our clinical data and billing.
Mark St. John
CIO MaineGeneral Health
Method
MaineGeneral initiated the first phase of their implementation of Heidi’s ambient AI medical scribe in June 2025. Heidi was initially offered to 38 medical staff, but increased the number to 51 because of demand. Ninety-eight percent of participants became active users, generating:
5,928 recording sessions
11,812 notes and documents
It is not often that people in IT get to be part of a project that so positively impacts people's lives. Nearly every person so far that has started to use it has had very positive feedback. Heidi has been a valued partner.
Gwendolyn Blue
Project Manager, MGH
Early sentiment from clinicians and operational leaders was uniformly positive, citing reduced cognitive load, better in‑room presence, and strong note quality even in complex or noisy environments.
Based on the success, MGH initiated an expansion to 225 additional medical staff for the second phase, which started on September 1, 2025.
Heidi is a light‑lift deployment with no changes to existing EHR workflows. The IT team at MGH reported that the onboarding and implementation process across the first phase went very well.
Onboarding during each phase includes:
Orientation calls
Live “Heidi Clinics” office‑hour webinars
Ongoing Q&A
Specialty‑aware templates and workflows tuned to each department’s needs
At-the-elbow support
Results
In August 2025, after the first phase of the rollout at MaineGeneral, a survey of medical staff using Heidi’s AI scribe showed:
98% adoption among first cohort
89% would recommend Heidi to a collegue
100% reported no significant errors in the documentation created by Heidi
Other impacts include
75% believed that Heidi helped them focus more on patient care
96% wanted to continue using the Heidi AI scribe
82% agreed that Heidi reduced mental effort during documentation
75% believed that Heidi helped them focus more on patient care
High activation across diverse specialties in a relatively short window suggests Heidi’s design aligns with MGH’s clinician-first philosophy and multi‑specialty needs. The program positions MGH to scale ambient AI benefits across inpatient, outpatient, and ancillary settings to:
Reduce administrative burden by accelerating note generation and ancillary documents.
Improve in‑room presence and patient rapport by minimizing keyboard time.
Establish a scalable rollout model for rapid expansion to additional medical staff.
Validate safety and reliability of AI‑generated notes across diverse specialties.
From a qualitative perspective, many medical staff, across specialties from Family Medicine to Urgent Care, Behavioral Health, and Surgery, reported that they were very happy with the Heidi AI scribe:
“I’m impressed that Heidi is able to hear through children clanging through legos or magnatiles in my office and still captures pertinent language from a parent or child through this noise.”
“I hope I never have to see patients again without an AI option. It is a game changer for sure! I can’t express how great this tool is and how easy it was to use.”
"I’m quite impressed. It recorded everything great while there was a kiddo crying the whole time."
Conclusion
Ultimately, MaineGeneral was looking for an AI partner that could meet the current needs to improve documentation and billing and help them build a foundation for AI for the future. Early results show that the MGH medical staff are adopting Heidi quickly and without reservation. It’s already easing their documentation workload and giving them more time to focus on patients.
As MGH moves ahead with a larger rollout to another 225 medical staff, they are eager to see all the benefits at scale. In similar organizations, Heidi has seen an average of 5 minutes saved per provider per visit, which translates to nearly 2 hours a day saved per provider or an additional 2-4 appointments a day. That increase in capacity has a direct impact on the bottom line.
MaineGeneral selected Heidi because of the company’s:
Clinician‑first design and specialty depth: Heidi was brought to their attention by an early champion in Dermatology, and the MGH leadership has cited Heidi’s multi‑specialty fit and willingness to co‑build bespoke workflows as key factors.
Outcome‑driven philosophy: MGH prioritized measurable clinician impact over integration checklists. Heidi is known for focusing on experience and workflow over EHR integration, which has been shown to deliver higher adoption rates of 60-80%.
Implementation partnership: Heidi provided white-glove service with a responsive team, clear playbook, and collaborative rollout.
From improved patient experience to increased capacity to lower physician burnout, MGH is already seeing the benefits ambient AI can bring to an organization. Mark St. John sees the long-term potential, “We see Heidi as a partner helping us deliver measurable transformation to our organization, making us more resilient as we face the many challenges in our industry.”
We see Heidi as a partner helping us deliver measurable transformation to our organization, making us more resilient as we face the many challenges in our industry.
Mark St. John
CIO MaineGeneral Health
About Heidi
Heidi is a world-class AI clinical scribe designed to help clinicians scale care, not admin. Trusted by healthcare professionals globally, with over 2 million patient consults weekly across 50+ countries, Heidi caters to over 300 specialties. Heidi turns real-time conversations into structured notes, supporting clinicians at every step of the patient journey.
Whether you're a solo practitioner or a 30-department health system, a primary healthcare nurse or an orthopedic surgeon, Heidi adapts to any workflow, reducing after-hours documentation. Learn more at https://www.heidihealth.com.
