Meridian Health Network is one of Chicago's largest multi-specialty health systems, operating across 11 clinic locations and serving a patient population that spans internal medicine, cardiology, and behavioral health. When Dr. James Okafor took on the role of Chief Medical Officer in early 2024, physician burnout and documentation overload were the first problems he put on the agenda.
Meridian had previously evaluated two other ambient documentation tools and walked away from both. "The notes weren't accurate enough to trust without significant editing," Dr. Okafor said. "And if physicians are spending time editing instead of charting, you haven't actually solved anything." The evaluation process for Diagnose started with a two-week pilot across one internal medicine clinic. The results were clear enough that Dr. Okafor moved to a system-wide rollout within the same month.
The implementation was handled entirely by Diagnose's team. Meridian's IT department was involved only in the initial access approval. "We went from signed contract to active physicians in under 48 hours per location," Dr. Okafor said. "That speed was unexpected. Every other tool we had evaluated came with a six-week implementation timeline."
Across all 11 clinics, Meridian physicians now generate notes directly inside their existing EHR without any additional steps. Documentation time across the network dropped by an average of 1.8 hours per physician per day. Physician satisfaction scores, which Meridian tracks quarterly, showed their largest single-quarter improvement since the metric was introduced.
For Dr. Okafor, the most significant outcome has been retention. Two physicians who had indicated they were considering reducing hours cited Diagnose as a reason they changed their minds. "When you remove the thing that's burning people out, everything else gets easier," he said. Meridian is now in conversation with Diagnose about expanding into additional specialties across the network.