RandstackHow AI medical scribes work, where the risks sit after the TGA's October 2026 review, and how to choose and roll one out across your service.
Clinical documentation has become one of the largest drains on clinician time. Notes get finished after the last patient leaves, handovers vary from shift to shift, and the record is often written from memory rather than from the conversation itself.
An AI medical scribe tackles the problem at its source. It listens to the consultation and drafts a structured clinical note, which the clinician reviews, edits and signs.
Australian clinicians have adopted the technology quickly. In a November 2025 newsGP reader poll, 40% of respondents said they regularly used an AI scribe. Regulators are moving just as fast: in October 2026 the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) found that 8 of the 12 digital scribe products it reviewed had functions likely to make them medical devices.
This guide explains what an AI medical scribe is, how it works, the risks to manage, and what hospitals, day clinics and multi-site provider groups should check before rolling one out.
An AI medical scribe is software that captures the conversation between a clinician and a patient and turns it into a structured draft of the clinical record. You may also see it called an ambient AI scribe, a digital scribe or an AI clinical scribe.
The draft usually follows a SOAP format (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) or a template your organisation already uses, such as an emergency department note, an outpatient letter or a handover summary.
An AI medical scribe is different from the tools it is often compared with:
The defining feature of a safe AI scribe is not the AI. It is the review step: the output stays a draft until a clinician signs it.
Most AI medical scribes follow the same five steps.
The case for an AI medical scribe comes down to time, quality and attention.
Results depend on your specialty, your current workflow and how notes are written today. That is why it pays to measure a baseline before you start (see the rollout steps below).
AI scribes bring new obligations as well as new efficiencies. Five areas need attention before go-live.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) lists the errors to watch for: fabricated diagnoses, added or missing treatment steps, and misheard words such as "medication" and "mediation". It also warns about automation bias, where a fluent, complete-looking note is trusted without checking.
The fix is a process, not a feature: review every note before sign-off, audit a sample regularly, and report errors and near misses.
It depends on what the software does. Under the TGA's updated guidance on digital scribes (October 2026), a scribe whose only purpose is to record, transcribe and convert a clinical conversation into structured text, without analysing or interpreting clinical information, is generally not a medical device.
It is likely to be a medical device if it generates diagnoses, treatment options or follow-up recommendations that the clinician did not identify. That applies even to an optional "insights" feature carrying a disclaimer, and to a product marketed as guiding diagnosis or improving outcomes.
In its review, the TGA found that none of the 12 suppliers had identified their product as a medical device, yet 8 had functions likely to meet the definition. Ask any vendor which features are switched on, and what their regulatory position is.
Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) advises organisations not to enter personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available AI tools. It recommends a privacy impact assessment and notes that a local or on-premises deployment is likely to be more privacy-preserving.
The ACSQHC's ambient scribe guidance goes further: recordings should be stored in Australia unless the patient explicitly consents to offshore management.
Before you sign a contract, find out where audio and transcripts are processed and stored, how long they are kept, how they are deleted, and whether they are used to train or improve models.
Ahpra's guidance on AI in healthcare says ambient scribes generally require informed consent, obtained before recording starts. In some states and territories, recording a private conversation without consent can be a criminal offence.
Avant advises telling patients that a scribe is in use, how their information is used, that the output is a summary rather than a word-for-word transcript, and whether data is stored in Australia or overseas. Verbal consent is acceptable if it is documented. Patients can decline at any time, and the consultation should continue without the scribe.
The clinician who signs the note owns it. Ahpra states that practitioners must apply human judgement to any AI output and check the accuracy of records created with generative AI. The ACSQHC also recommends labelling records that AI helped create.
Many Australian clinicians start with a standalone app on a per-clinician subscription. Hospitals and multi-site groups usually need something that fits their governance and existing systems. Neither option is better in every case; the right choice depends on your setting.
| Standalone scribe app | Integrated clinical scribe | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Individual clinicians and small practices | Hospitals, day clinics and multi-site provider groups |
| Where the note goes | Copied into the record, or synced with supported practice software | Written into your existing EMR or patient management workflow |
| Templates | The vendor's standard templates | Organisation-wide templates for each service line |
| Governance | Settings managed per user | Role-based access, audit trails and central consent records |
| Data location | The vendor's cloud region | Private cloud, with data residency set to your requirements |
| Getting started | Sign up and start the same day | A scoped pilot and integration work |
A focused rollout protects patients and gives you evidence before you scale.
Pricing depends on the model you choose.
The subscription is only part of the cost. Include clinician review time, consent and governance set-up, training and integration work. A useful measure is cost per finalised note against the clinician time it returns.
Randstack's AI Clinical Scribe is part of the Randstack Healthcare System, a coordination layer for patient intake, referrals, scheduling and clinical documentation that works around the systems providers already use.
We start with a focused validation track on one high-friction workflow, measured against your own baseline, before expanding. See how it works in the AI Medical Documentation Assistant, or book a discovery call.
AI medical scribes can give clinicians back time and produce more consistent records, but only with the right safeguards. Choose a scribe whose functions, data location and consent workflow you understand, start with one workflow, and measure the results.
Yes. They are widely used, but providers must meet privacy and consent obligations, and products with medical device functions must meet TGA requirements. The clinician remains responsible for the record.
Yes. Ahpra and medical defence organisations advise getting informed consent before recording starts. Verbal consent is acceptable if it is documented, and patients can decline.
It depends on its functions. A scribe that only records, transcribes and structures a conversation is generally not a medical device. One that suggests diagnoses, treatments or follow-up the clinician did not identify is likely to be one.
It depends on the vendor and the plan. Ask where audio, transcripts and notes are processed and stored, and whether any of it leaves Australia.
Many can. Integrated scribes write notes into your existing EMR or patient management system; standalone apps often rely on copy and paste or selected integrations.
Accuracy varies by product, specialty and setting. AI scribes can omit, misstate or invent details, so every note needs clinician review, and the scribe should be tested in your own setting before you scale.
AI changes the role rather than removing the need for review. The AI drafts the note; a clinician checks and signs it.
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