Ambience

What is Ambience?

Ambience is an ambient AI scribe and clinical workflow platform built by Ambience Healthcare for hospitals and large medical groups. It records the conversation between clinician and patient, then drafts a structured note, orders and patient instructions for review inside the electronic health record.

The platform goes beyond note writing. It checks documentation against coding rules, surfaces patient complexity for clinical documentation integrity, reconciles charts and answers questions about a patient with cited sources. Ambience Healthcare was founded in 2020 by Mike Ng and Nikhil Buduma and is based in San Francisco. It is backed by Oak HC/FT, Andreessen Horowitz, the OpenAI Startup Fund and Kleiner Perkins, and the product is live in October 2026.

Key Features

• Ambient AI scribe: Ambience AutoScribe drafts specialty-specific notes, orders and patient instructions from the visit conversation. One review reports notes arriving in about 90 seconds, ready for the clinician to check and sign.
• Coding-aware documentation: Ambience suggests ICD-10, HCC, MCC and CC codes plus E&M levels while the note is written. The company says its coding is 95% compliant, a figure verified by the AAPC.
• Clinical documentation integrity: AutoCDI surfaces patient complexity and documentation gaps at the point of care. Clinicians can fix missing detail before the note reaches coders, which reduces later queries and denied claims.
• Chart awareness: Chart Awareness pulls patient history, prior notes, labs, imaging and medications into each note, according to reviewers. Clinicians get documentation that reflects the full record rather than only the current conversation.
• Chart reconciliation: Ambience resolves conflicting medication lists, stale problem lists and scanned faxes. This keeps the chart current without clinicians spending time cleaning records by hand between visits.
• Chart questions with citations: Clinicians can ask questions about a patient and receive answers with cited sources from the record. The citations let them confirm each detail quickly before acting on it.
• Visit prep and follow-up: Reviewers list modules for pre-visit chart summaries, after-visit summaries and referral letters. Together they cover work before and after the appointment, not only the note itself.
• Task management: Ambience tracks and completes clinical to-dos raised during rounds and visits. Follow-up items are less likely to slip through when a busy inpatient shift ends.
• Broad specialty coverage: Ambience says it supports more than 200 specialties across ambulatory, inpatient and emergency department care. Large health systems can roll out one tool to many departments instead of several point solutions.

Pros

• Deep EHR integration: Ambience works inside Epic and joined Epic’s Toolbox programme in August 2025, adding access through Haiku. Clinicians document within the record they already use rather than copying text from a separate app.
• Coding built into notes: Ambience checks coding as notes are drafted, with AAPC-verified 95% compliance claimed. Health systems can capture patient complexity accurately and protect revenue without a second documentation pass.
• Proven at large systems: Ambience names MultiCare, Houston Methodist, Ardent Health and Cleveland Clinic as customers. Cleveland Clinic’s pilot results were published in a peer-reviewed study in Nature, according to the company.
• High clinician adoption: Ambience reports use in 80% of visits and a 92% clinician adoption rate at MultiCare. Strong uptake matters because an AI scribe only saves time when clinicians actually use it.
• Independent recognition: Ambience received a KLAS Trailblazer Award and Fast Company recognition, according to its website. One 2026 review also cites a 97.7 out of 100 KLAS score in a 2025 ambient AI report.
• Healthcare-grade compliance: Reviews report HIPAA compliance with business associate agreements, SOC 2 Type II and HITRUST r2 certification. Hospital security teams get the assurances they usually require before approving patient data access.

Cons

• No public pricing: Ambience does not publish prices, and every deal goes through enterprise sales. Industry estimates of around $233 to $267 per provider a month for the scribe alone are unconfirmed.
• Not for small practices: Ambience targets health systems and large groups rather than solo clinicians. Independent practitioners cannot sign up and test it, so consumer-priced scribes are a more practical choice for them.
• Long rollout: Deployment takes weeks to months, according to reviews, and includes an implementation fee. Health systems need IT staff and project time before clinicians see benefits in daily visits.
• Best fit with Epic: Integration is deepest for Epic organisations, with Oracle Health and athenahealth also supported. Reviews report limited support for smaller EHRs such as eClinicalWorks and AdvancedMD.
• Vendor-led outcome data: Figures such as 3x ROI and $3 operating margin per $1 spent come from Ambience and its customers. Buyers should measure their own results in a pilot before committing system-wide.

Who is Using Ambience?

• Health systems: Rolling out ambient documentation across many departments.
• Hospital clinicians: Documenting inpatient and emergency department care faster.
• Ambulatory physicians: Reducing after-hours charting in outpatient clinics.
• Revenue cycle teams: Improving coding accuracy and documentation integrity.

Pricing

Ambience uses enterprise contract pricing with no public price list (checked on the official site, October 2026).

Third-party reviews estimate about $233 to $267 per provider a month for the scribe and $4,000 to $5,000 per provider a year for the full suite, plus implementation fees, but Ambience has not confirmed these figures. Treat them as rough planning numbers and ask for a quote matched to your clinician count and modules.

What Makes Ambience Unique?

Ambience ties ambient note writing directly to coding and documentation integrity, so the same draft that saves clinicians time also supports accurate billing. Many AI scribes stop at the transcript and summary, while Ambience checks codes against AAPC-verified rules before the note is signed. Its Chorus platform also gives the AI a view of the wider chart, so it can reconcile medication lists and answer cited questions about a patient. The company says it links part of its fee to outcomes, which is rare among documentation vendors.

Compatibilities and Integrations

• EHRs: Epic, including the Epic Toolbox programme, plus Oracle Health (Cerner) and athenahealth.
• Mobile: Access within Epic Haiku for clinicians documenting on the move.
• Care settings: Ambulatory clinics, inpatient wards and emergency departments.
• Coding standards: ICD-10, HCC, MCC, CC and E&M level suggestions.

Ambience Tutorials

Ambience is deployed through a health system project rather than a self-serve download.

1. Contact Ambience Healthcare to scope specialties, clinician numbers and modules.
2. Work with your IT team to connect Ambience to Epic, Oracle Health or athenahealth.
3. Start a pilot group and record visits with patient consent through the EHR workflow.
4. Review each drafted note, codes and flagged gaps before signing in the chart.
5. Compare documentation time and coding results, then widen the rollout.

How We Rated It

Summary

Ambience suits hospitals and large medical groups that want ambient documentation and accurate coding in one Epic-friendly platform. Its main limitation is access, since pricing is private and small practices cannot sign up. We rate its coding-aware notes as a real advantage over scribe-only tools. Run a pilot in two or three specialties and track note time and coding accuracy before a wider rollout.