The West Virginia University Health System, which operates under the brand WVU Medicine, is expanding Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform for clinical conversations across its multi-state network. The expansion follows clinician-reported gains in well-being and satisfaction that are strengthening retention and patient access across largely rural communities.
After the success of the initial rollout, WVU Medicine, West Virginia’s largest health system and private employer, will deploy Abridge to support more than 2,800 clinicians delivering care across 25 hospitals and dozens of outpatient and acute care settings. WVU Medicine serves 2.5 million patients annually across West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland.
“In largely rural and underserved communities, clinician retention is crucial to patient access,” said Dr. David Rich, Chief Medical Information Officer at WVU Medicine. “When documentation burden pushes clinicians toward burnout and early retirement, our communities feel it directly. Abridge is helping our clinicians stay focused on patients instead of paperwork.”
This expansion was driven largely by peer-to-peer clinician advocacy, with clinicians citing a strong preference for Abridge’s note quality and workflow fit compared to other ambient AI solutions.
In a pre- and post-implementation survey, more than 200 clinicians at WVU Medicine reported meaningful improvements, including: 78% increase in undivided attention to patients, 61% reduction in cognitive load, and 77% increase in satisfaction at work.
Clinicians across family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine, as well as urgent and acute care have seen particularly strong adoption, with emerging use cases in specialties such as rheumatology and ophthalmology.
“It has been life changing,” said Dr. Brian Dilcher, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for Emergency Medicine Informatics. “I no longer spend time outside my scheduled hours documenting. I actually look forward to my shifts.”
Beyond documentation, WVU Medicine is exploring Abridge’s broader conversation intelligence platform, evaluating future use cases in nursing workflows, procedural documentation, and discharge summaries, with a long-term interest in responsibly expanding AI-enabled clinical and operational support throughout the patient care journey.
“What’s powerful about WVU Medicine’s expansion is that clinicians themselves are driving it,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “Together, we’re proving that enterprise-scale AI in rural healthcare can improve access and support the clinicians who work hard everyday caring for underserved communities.”
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