Case Studies: University Hospitals of Leicester and Alder Hey
Evidence from real-world deployments across paediatric and acute care settings
Lyrebird Health's ambient voice technology has been deployed across multiple NHS Trusts, delivering measurable improvements in clinical productivity, documentation quality, operational efficiency, and clinician and patient experience.
This document presents findings from two independent NHS deployments:
- Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust: 12-month pilot across paediatric outpatient, A&E, and specialist services (20,000+ consultations)
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust: 4-week pilot across outpatient specialties addressing transcription backlogs
Both deployments demonstrate that ambient voice technology can deliver simultaneous improvements in productivity, quality, patient experience, and clinician wellbeing when implemented in real-world NHS settings.
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Case Study 1: Ambient Voice Technology Across Paediatric Services
Overview
Organisation: Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Setting: One of Europe's largest children's hospitals
Deployment: 12-month pilot across outpatient clinics, A&E, and specialist paediatrics
Scale: Over 20,000 consultations (October 2024 - October 2025)
Run rate at 6 months: 500+ consultations per week
The Challenge
Before deploying ambient voice technology, Alder Hey faced documentation and workflow challenges common across NHS acute settings:
- Letter turnaround delays: Outpatient letters could take up to 30 days to reach families and GPs
- After-hours documentation burden: Clinicians spending evenings catching up on clinical documentation
- Administrative pressure: Secretarial teams stretched chasing letters and approvals
- Divided attention: Clinicians managing both patient interaction and documentation requirements simultaneously
The Solution
Alder Hey partnered with Lyrebird Health to deploy AI-powered ambient voice technology across outpatient clinics, A&E, and specialist paediatric services. The technology captures clinical conversations in real-time and generates structured documentation, enabling clinicians to focus on patients during consultations and review AI-generated notes afterward.
Clinical feedback during deployment:
A clinical psychologist reflected:
"A complex appointment that would have taken me 40 minutes to type up now takes 5 minutes to check and copy. I could actually focus on the patient instead of worrying about the notes."
A consultant speech therapist added:
"Even in a multi-disciplinary clinic with eight professionals and a family talking, the system captured the key clinical content. It's game-changing."
Results
Productivity and Efficiency:
- 8 minutes saved per consultation on average
- 32 minutes saved per 4-hour clinic session (13.33% capacity increase possible)
- 26 minutes of daily admin time reclaimed per clinician
- 40% reduction in A&E clinician time per patient
Documentation Quality:
- 7.2% improvement in clinical note quality (PDQI-9 metrics)
- AI-generated notes scored 37.1/40 vs 34.6/40 for manual notes
- 58% of AI-generated notes accepted verbatim
Workflow:
- Same-day letters for all patients (reduced from up to 30 days)
- Elimination of approval and transcription bottlenecks
Experience:
- 95% of clinicians would recommend to colleagues
- 100% reported improved focus during consultations
- 93% of patients comfortable with AI-assisted documentation
- 67% of families reported clinicians gave them more attention
Leadership Perspective
Adam Bateman, Deputy CEO of Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust:
"Our partnership with Lyrebird represents an exciting step toward a future where technology empowers healthcare professionals to deliver even better care. Integrating AI into our operations can improve efficiency and patient outcomes, ensuring that every penny spent contributes to making a real difference."
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Case Study 2: Eliminating Transcription Backlogs Across Outpatient Specialties
Overview
Organisation: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Setting: One of the UK's largest and busiest acute Trusts
Deployment: 4-week pilot across outpatient specialties
Specialties: Women's health, paediatrics, haematology, respiratory
Focus: Addressing transcription backlogs and letter turnaround delays
The Challenge
University Hospitals of Leicester faced documentation workflow challenges affecting care continuity:
- Transcription backlogs: Letters taking nearly a week to reach patients and GPs
- External dependency: Reliance on outsourced transcription services introducing delays
- Approval cycle delays: Days added to letter finalisation after transcription
- Administrative burden: Staff chasing transcription delays rather than supporting patients
- Workflow fragmentation: Documentation rarely finalised during clinic hours
The Solution
UHL deployed Lyrebird Health's ambient voice technology across multiple outpatient specialties to test whether AI-powered documentation could eliminate transcription backlogs and accelerate letter turnaround at scale.
Clinical feedback during deployment:
A senior consultant described the change:
"Transformational - what once took days of chasing through admin queues now happens before I leave the consultation room."
Results
Productivity and Workflow:
- Transcription time: 14.7 hours → 1 minute (>99% improvement)
- Approval time: 5.4 days → 1 minute (>99% improvement)
- Letter turnaround: 6.7 days → 22 hours (81% improvement)
Workflow and Compliance:
- Elimination of external transcription dependency
- Real-time documentation available within minutes
- Enhanced audit trail and clinical governance
Clinical Accuracy:
- 95% transcription accuracy for medical terminology
- Standardised documentation across specialties
- Enhanced clinical communication with GPs and referrers
Experience:
- 95% of clinicians would recommend to colleagues
- 100% reported improved focus during consultations
What These Deployments Demonstrate
Both Alder Hey and UHL validate that ambient voice technology can deliver measurable improvements across multiple dimensions simultaneously:
- Productivity: Time savings per consultation enables increased capacity without additional workforce or extended hours. Administrative time is reclaimed from after-hours work.
- Quality: AI-generated documentation meets or exceeds manually written notes on validated quality metrics, while standardising documentation across clinicians and specialties.
- Workflow: Transcription and approval bottlenecks are eliminated. Letters are finalised during clinic hours rather than days or weeks later.
- Experience: Clinicians report improved focus during consultations and reduced cognitive burden. Patients report more attentive interactions. Administrative teams shift from chasing delays to patient-facing work.
- Scalability: Alder Hey's sustained adoption (500+ consultations/week at 6 months) demonstrates that initial benefits are maintained as the tool becomes routine practice.
- Generalisability: Success across diverse settings (paediatric outpatient, A&E, multi-disciplinary clinics, women's health, haematology, respiratory) indicates the approach works across clinical contexts.
Implementation Insights
Both deployments offer practical insights for NHS trusts considering ambient voice technology:
- Start with clear workflow pain points: Both trusts targeted specific, measurable challenges (letter delays at Alder Hey, transcription backlogs at UHL). This created clear success criteria and visible impact.
- Measure what matters locally: Alder Hey focused on same-day letters and reclaimed clinician time. UHL focused on transcription and approval cycles. Metrics were chosen to reflect local priorities.
- Expect high clinician acceptance: Both sites achieved 95% clinician recommendation rates, indicating the technology is acceptable and valued by frontline users when properly implemented.
- Plan for administrative workflow changes: Time saved from transcription delays created capacity for administrative teams to focus on patient-facing activities and service improvement.
- Track quality alongside efficiency: Both sites validated that faster documentation did not compromise quality - in fact, quality improved on standardised metrics.
Looking Forward
Alder Hey and UHL demonstrate that ambient voice technology can work at scale in real-world NHS settings, delivering improvements in productivity, quality, patient experience, and clinician wellbeing.
For NHS trusts facing documentation backlogs, after-hours clinician burden, or communication delays, these case studies offer evidence that ambient voice technology can address multiple challenges simultaneously when implemented thoughtfully.
The technology is now proven across paediatric and adult acute care, outpatient and emergency settings, and single-specialty and multi-disciplinary clinics. High clinician recommendation rates and sustained adoption indicate that the approach is acceptable to frontline users and delivers value in routine practice.
Contact Lyrebird Health:
enterprise@lyrebirdhealth.com
These case studies are based on deployment data and feedback from Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust (12-month pilot, October 2024 - October 2025) and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (4-week pilot across outpatient specialties).
