Neighborhood Healthcare is committed to providing accessible, high-quality care for nearly 100,000 patients annually across San Diego and Riverside counties
Nabla, the leading ambient AI assistant for clinicians, has expanded its partnership with Neighborhood Healthcare, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving nearly 100,000 patients annually across San Diego and Riverside counties. The rollout follows a successful four-month pilot, and Nabla’s ambient AI assistant is now live across all 220 clinicians at the organization.
Neighborhood Healthcare, like many Federally Qualified Health Centers, faces the daily challenge of delivering high-quality care with limited resources. Clinicians are stretched thin, juggling rising patient needs with growing administrative demands, especially the time-consuming work of documenting care in electronic health records (EHRs). Studies have shown that for every hour clinicians spend with patients, nearly two additional hours are spent on administrative work after clinic hours. Excessive time spent on EHR work during patient visits has been shown to reduce eye contact, limit meaningful interactions, and lead to clinical burnout. This can also create a task-driven environment that can weaken the patient-provider relationship, which is especially true for patients who already face barriers to care and rely on FQHCs for consistent, compassionate treatment.
Neighborhood Healthcare turned to Nabla to give clinicians more time to focus on their patients instead of their screens. The ambient AI assistant securely listens to visits with patient consent and automatically generates a structured clinical note that works seamlessly with the organization’s EHR system, eClinicalWorks. It offers a smarter, lighter way to handle documentation without slowing down the pace of care.
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“Supporting our clinicians is one of the most effective ways we can improve access and quality of care,” said Rakesh Patel, MD, CEO of Neighborhood Healthcare. “Nabla’s technology has meaningfully reduced administrative burden and helped our providers spend more time doing what they do best—caring for patients.”
During the pilot program, clinicians reported finishing notes before the visit ended and spending significantly less time in the EHR after hours. Some even shared that they had gotten their nights and weekends back. A total of 34,000 notes were generated during and after the pilot, with 76% of notes receiving a rating of 4 out of 5 or higher from providers. The overall average note rating was 4.3, and only 2% of notes required editing, highlighting the accuracy and consistency of the AI-generated documentation.
Clinicians also highlighted Nabla’s flexibility and customization, particularly the ability to tailor tone, length, and structure to fit individual documentation styles. Nabla offers custom clinical note templates for more than 55 specialties, and Neighborhood Healthcare adopted them across general medicine, dental, behavioral health, pediatrics, women’s health, and podiatry. The assistant’s patient context feature, used in 25% of all notes, proved especially valuable. It allowed Medical Assistants (MAs) to streamline intake during rooming and provide clinicians with more complete, contextual information before documentation began.
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Nabla’s ambient AI assistant is designed to adapt to the unique needs of each clinical setting. Its multilingual capabilities, including Spanish and Arabic, align with the needs of FQHCs like Neighborhood Healthcare, which serve highly diverse patient populations. The assistant also supports personalized note preferences, enabling clinicians to document efficiently without compromising the personal connection at the heart of high-quality care.
“As a physician, the burden of documentation can often take away from the most important part of my job, being fully present with my patient. With Nabla’s ambient AI, that’s changed,” said Dr. Edgar Bulloch, Assistant Chief Medical Officer of Neighborhood Healthcare. “I no longer have to type frantically during visits or worry that I’ll miss capturing something important. Instead, I can focus on the patient, listening to their story, making eye contact, and truly engaging. I know that Nabla is capturing the conversation and turning it into a well-structured clinical note that’s easy for other clinicians to follow.”
Looking ahead, Neighborhood Healthcare is exploring how MAs can play a greater role in leveraging Nabla to support tasks like discharge summaries, lab and referral orders, and follow-up documentation. This focus on MAs is especially important in safety-net settings, where these frontline team members are essential to operational flow but often stretched thin. By easing their administrative workload, Nabla can help reduce burnout, improve workflow efficiency, and ultimately enhance the experience for both staff and patients.
“Clinicians in safety-net settings carry an immense workload. Nabla helps them reclaim time and reconnect with their patients,” said Delphine Groll, cofounder and COO of Nabla. “We’re honored to partner with Neighborhood Healthcare, where what began as one doctor’s personal experience with our technology has grown into a systemwide deployment. That’s the power of grassroots adoption—and it reflects how deeply we listen and respond to the needs of providers.”
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Source – PR Newswire
