Description
The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) delivers care to over 1.2 million people across Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec and Nunavut, with more than 13,000 staff including over 5,000 nurses and 2,700 physicians and residents. As documentation and administrative workloads grew, especially after the pandemic, clinicians across TOH's campuses reported rising stress and burnout, and felt it was pulling them away from meaningful time with patients.
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The hospital's Digital Experience team selected DAX Copilot, an AI assistant for clinical workflows that is part of Microsoft for Healthcare, with ambient listening capabilities tied to Microsoft Dragon Copilot. DAX Copilot listens to the conversation between a clinician and patient and automatically drafts the visit documentation, without the clinician typing or manually populating fields during the encounter. Its native integration with TOH's existing Epic electronic health record was the deciding factor: clinicians could keep their familiar workflow without an extra login or a new system to learn, which the Digital Experience team saw as key to keeping the hospital's overall digital footprint simple rather than adding another tool.
TOH rolled DAX Copilot out carefully. It began with 70 clinicians across Ambulatory Care, specialty clinics and the Emergency Department, selected for their willingness to try new technology, and onboarded them in three phases. The Digital Experience team and Microsoft ran virtual and in-person training sessions, one-on-one assistance, and custom sessions for TOH's own systems, plus regular peer-to-peer meetings where clinicians could compare notes and solve shared challenges. Bi-monthly check-ins let the team track progress with quality-improvement methodology, and each month the team combined DAX Copilot and Epic data with clinician and patient feedback in a Power BI dashboard to review results.
The reported results were substantial. Emergency Department physicians saved an average of seven minutes per encounter and saw about two additional patients per shift. Surveyed clinicians reported a 70% reduction in burnout and fatigue. Patient satisfaction also rose: overall care ratings increased by at least 2% when a clinician used DAX Copilot, and 98% of patients said their encounters were as good as or better than earlier experiences, with more reporting they felt they had their clinician's full attention. Following this response, TOH is extending the trial to 200 users, including more emergency and ambulatory care clinicians and regional partners.
- CategoryMedical & Clinical AI
- Pricing ModelNot specified
- DeploymentCloud
- PlatformsMicrosoft
Key Takeaways
Ambient documentation that drafts clinical notes automatically from the patient-clinician conversation
Native integration with the hospital's existing Epic EHR, avoiding a separate login or extra workflow step
Phased 70-clinician rollout across Ambulatory Care, specialty clinics and the Emergency Department
Change management built on virtual and in-person training plus peer-to-peer best-practice sessions
Bi-monthly check-ins used to guide the rollout with quality-improvement methodology
A Power BI dashboard combining DAX Copilot and Epic data with clinician and patient feedback
Measured outcomes of roughly 2 additional emergency patients seen per shift and about 7 minutes saved per encounter
Reported 70% reduction in clinician burnout and fatigue among surveyed users
Trial expansion to 200 users including more emergency and ambulatory care clinicians and regional partners
What This Case Study Demonstrates
- Emergency Department documentation
- Ambulatory and specialty clinics
- Burnout reduction programs
- EHR-integrated AI rollout
