How Ambient AI Is Changing Leader Rounding in Healthcare

Leader rounding shapes patient experience, care quality, and employee engagement. Yet many teams struggle with a basic problem: they must choose between connecting with patients and documenting what they hear. 

A recent Becker’s Healthcare Podcast featured Katie Haifley, CPXP, Senior Director of Product at NRC Health, and Tanya Hammon, Director of Experience at Parkview Health. Their discussion showed how ambient listening with agentic AI is changing daily workflows, documentation quality, and patient conversations. 

Key Points 

• Ambient AI removes the conflict between listening and documenting 
• Nurses capture more detailed and accurate patient feedback 
• Documentation shifts from manual entry to fast review 
• Teams identify more patient concerns and recognition moments 
• Conversations between staff and patients feel more natural

Leader rounding has always involved a tension between presence and documentation. Staff want to give patients their full attention, yet they must capture information in structured systems. 

“The problem that we’ve been trying to solve comes down to what I call a trade-off,” says Haifley.  

In many cases, workflow forces a split focus. Nurses glance between the patient and a screen. Leaders pause conversations to enter responses. Some avoid capturing detail in the moment and rely on memory later. 

Time pressure makes this worse, with leaders often rounding across many patients in a short window. Haifley shared a common example: some leaders spend “twenty minutes documenting” during a one-hour rounding block.  

That time reduces face-to-face interaction. It also creates a second task at the end of the shift when staff try to reconstruct conversations from memory. 

Ambient listening with agentic AI removes the need to type during the conversation. Staff begin the session, confirm consent, and place the device nearby. The system listens and captures the exchange in real time. 

“You can literally set the phone down and just have a conversation more easily,” says Haifley.  

This shift allows the interaction to unfold more naturally. Staff don’t need to follow a rigid script; they can move through topics in any order, respond to what the patient shares, and include family members in the discussion. 

At Parkview Health, this change altered how nurses physically show up in the room. 

“Our nurses walk into the patient’s room, ask the patient for permission, then set that iPad or iPhone down and pull up a chair,” says Hammon.  

That detail matters. Pulling up a chair creates a different interaction: it signals that the nurse has time to listen. 

“It does feel way more natural…and not trying to keep track of your notes,” says Hammon.  

In other words, the technology fades into the background, and the conversation becomes the focus. 

From Transactional Rounds to Meaningful Conversations 

Before this change, many nurses described rounding as a checklist. Questions felt scripted, and documentation often lacked depth. 

“It felt very transactional—they weren’t capturing details,” says Hammon.  

Some nurses worked around the issue by documenting after leaving the room. But that approach created two problems: it added duplicate work, and it led to missing details. 

Ambient AI addresses both issues at once. The system captures what is said as it happens. It also records tone, concerns, and context. 

Hammon shared a simple but powerful example. A note might have stated, “The patient is concerned about going home.” With ambient AI, the record includes the reason behind the concern. It captures confusion about medications and fear of returning to the hospital.  

That level of detail changes how teams respond. Instead of a general concern, staff see a clear problem they can address. 

Stronger Documentation and Clearer Patient Signals 

The improvement in documentation quality shows up quickly in reporting. Teams see more detailed narratives and more complete records of each interaction. 

“We’ve seen 60 times more narrative depth,” says Haifley.  

This increase reflects richer descriptions, not just longer entries. The system captures what matters, including patient language and specific concerns. 

The technology also identifies more issues during rounds. “One out of every four rounds now picks up a patient concern,” says Haifley.  

This raises an important question: are patients sharing more, or are teams now capturing what was already there? The answer is clear: patients have always shared concerns, and now teams are better able to capture them in full. 

Recognition improves with the new technology as well. “We’re actually getting more recognition and opportunities to provide service recovery,” says Hammon.  

Positive feedback, staff recognition, and small service issues all show up more often in the record. Teams can act on them right away. 

Time Shifts from Typing to Action 

Ambient AI changes how leaders spend their time during and after rounds. Instead of typing or recalling conversations later, they’re now able to review and approve generated notes. 

Haifley described the difference with a clear comparison. According to her, the system produces “around six minutes worth of typing time, which takes about thirty seconds to approve.”  

That shift removes a major burden from the workflow. Leaders no longer return to a desk to enter information at the end of the day—the documentation is ready soon after the interaction ends. 

This gives leaders more time for follow-up. They can address concerns faster, connect with staff, and close the loop with patients. 

Does this change impact patient relationships? Yes—and the effect appears quickly in feedback from staff. “They felt a lot more confident in the connections and the relationships they’re able to build,” says Hammon.  

Patients notice when staff give full attention. There is no divide between conversation and documentation, which encourages patients to share more detail. 

The tool also shifts how staff view rounding itself. Some nurses had avoided rounding in the past. They saw it as time-consuming and disconnected from care. 

Now they see it differently. Hammon noted that nurses who once didn’t round consistently have adopted the tool and find it easier to use. As a result, the process feels less like a task and more like a conversation.

Healthcare organizations must guide new tools with clear policies and oversight. Trust plays a central role in adoption. For its part, Parkview Health built a structured governance model. 

“We have a steering committee dedicated to the AI focus,” says Hammon.  

The system also created a subcommittee that focuses on patient-facing tools and experience. The group aligns workflows, builds staff confidence, and maintains patient trust. 

NRC Health supports this work by giving organizations control over how they use the technology. Teams can decide where to apply ambient AI and manage how long audio is stored, says Haifley. Clear policies and transparency help teams adopt the tool with confidence.

It’s important to note that ambient AI doesn’t replace human interaction. It removes the friction that interrupts it. 

“We get into healthcare because of the patients,” says Haifley. “This brings us back to that renewed focus on helping patients.” 

With the adjustment of ambient AI, leaders can spend more time listening. Nurses can capture more meaningful detail. Patients feel better heard and understood. And the technology works quietly in the background—allowing the conversation to take center stage, where it belongs.