AI scribe and dictation compared

Ambient capture records the consult and drafts the note. Dictation transcribes the summary spoken after it.

Written by the aurii team

A draft from ambient capture starts from the conversation in the room. A dictated note starts from what the clinician chose to say once the consult is over.

A clinician's hands typing on a laptop keyboard beside a teal stethoscope on a wooden desk

Comparison

Dictation transcribes one voice speaking composed sentences after the consult. Ambient capture transcribes two or more voices as it runs, and the structure of the note is applied afterwards.

  • Dictation and ambient capture compared
    DictationAmbient capture with aurii
    What is capturedThe summary the clinician speaks, composed after the consult.The consult conversation, recorded in the room.
    What comes backA transcript of what was spoken.A drafted progress note or letter, built on the template set up for that clinician.
    When the work happensAfter the consult, once per note.During the consult, with review afterwards.
    What is still typedCorrections to the transcript, and any structure the transcript does not carry.Corrections to the draft, and anything that was not said aloud.
    Results and measurementsRead aloud by the clinician, or typed in later.Uploaded, with the clinician confirming what was read.
    Where the draft opensIn the practice system, after transcription.In aurii, on the phone or in a browser.
    Who signsThe treating clinician.The treating clinician.
    How it reaches the receiving practiceTyped or pasted into the practice system, then sent from there.Dispatched from the signed letter.

Timing and the contemporaneous record

Medicare requires an adequate and contemporaneous record of the service, and Ahpra expects notes made at or close to the time of care. Detail thins as the gap between the consult and the dictation widens, and a backlog carries the oldest consults.

A draft that exists when the patient leaves can be signed the same day, once it has been read against the consult. That reading takes minutes per patient.

What each method can miss

A dictated note carries what the clinician chose to speak. Detail considered and never narrated does not reach the record.

A draft from ambient capture carries what was audible in the room. A silent decision, a number read off a monitor, or a finding noted without comment is absent from the draft, and the clinician adds it at review.

Nothing leaves aurii until a clinician signs it. Clinical safety.

What a practice has to settle

Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and recording a whole consult collects more of it than a spoken summary does. Patients are told about ambient recording before capture starts, and the wording sits with the practice. Consent for ambient recording.

Both methods create an audio recording before a note exists. Deletion runs on request. What is deleted and what the practice keeps.

What aurii captures

aurii records the consult and transcribes it, then drafts a progress note or a letter in the template set up for that clinician. It stays a draft until the treating clinician edits and signs it.

Both go to the treating clinician before signing. The check on a dictated transcript covers what the speech recognition heard. The check on a draft covers what the conversation contained and what it left out.

aurii transcribes what is said during the recorded consult, so a summary spoken in the room forms part of the transcript the draft is built from.

No. The practice keeps its own system of record either way.

This article is general information about clinical documentation workflows, not clinical, legal or financial advice.

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