Robbie Price, a nurse practitioner in Bedford County, Virginia, has spent two decades documenting patient encounters in every way imaginable—handwriting, voice recorders, voice recognition software—but nothing quite compares to what he's experienced with artificial intelligence. When Centra Health deployed AI-powered ambient digital scribes in July, Price called the shift "transformational on the clinical end." Now, instead of typing notes during and after appointments, he simply speaks with his patient while software on his phone listens, automatically converting their conversation into a fully formed clinical note complete with medical details and context.
The technology addresses one of modern medicine's most persistent problems: the crushing administrative burden that keeps physicians working long after their final patient leaves. Price describes it as "pajama time"—those evenings and weekends spent catching up on documentation from morning rounds. By having AI draft notes in real time, providers become editors rather than scribes, freeing them to look patients in the eye instead of staring at a screen. The software intelligently filters out small talk—how someone's dog is doing, which baseball team they favor—leaving only clinically relevant details for the permanent record.
Carilion Clinic in Roanoke has been integrating AI-powered documentation since 2023, with the tools spreading across clinical teams since then. Dr. Maruf Haider, the system's associate chief medical information officer, noted an unexpected benefit: being fully present during an appointment means providers recall details more accurately when reviewing notes later. The result, he said, is "a more thorough note that, in some cases, it picked up things that I would have not thought about putting in that was pertinent." According to an American Medical Association survey from 2026, about 81% of physicians already report using AI for research, patient communication, discharge instructions, and documentation.
Healthcare leaders across Virginia view this expansion as a net positive. Beth Bortz, president and CEO of the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, points out that AI can reduce administrative burdens, improve efficiency, and help address clinician burnout—a crisis that has reshaped the profession. Yet beneath this optimism lies a growing tension. Younger patients, in particular, are asking harder questions: How is my personal information stored? Who has access to it? These concerns often focus on third-party vendors, the private companies that develop and manage these AI systems. Hospitals must rely on outside technology partners, introducing additional layers of data access and responsibility that create new security risks.
Legal and ethical frameworks have lagged behind adoption, according to Dr. Maxim Topaz, who develops AI technologies at Columbia School of Nursing. This gap may actually discourage transparency about how tools are being used. The challenge intensifies with each vendor added to the chain; as Gurkan Akalin, executive director of the Institute for Applied Data Analytics at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, explains, relying on third parties can increase exposure to security breaches and data loss, making transparency between health systems and vendors critical for protecting patient information.
Federal HIPAA security rules, enacted in 2003, require administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect patient privacy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designed its guidance to be flexible and technology-neutral, allowing health systems to adopt new tools while maintaining compliance. But the question remains: can regulation keep pace with a technology that evolves faster than policy ever could? For now, Virginia's healthcare systems are navigating that tension—capturing the gains of AI while carefully stewarding patient trust.