PocketRN transforms clinical documentation with AI and Zoom Clinical Notes

When Ryan Saunders, Sam Thomas, and Jenna Morgenstern-Gaines founded PocketRN, the goal was to close the gap between healthcare and the home. Five years later, the virtual nursing platform has contributed to a 30% reduction in ER visits and patient readmissions.

PocketRN’s model centers on empowering nurses to deliver high-quality, relationship-based care to patients who often live far from clinical facilities or struggle with technology. They partner closely with health systems, remote patient monitoring companies, home care agencies, and health plans to provide a care delivery model that supports their nurses, caregivers, and patients. Many of their patients are older adults managing chronic conditions in rural areas, often supported by caregivers or family members who may join visits remotely.

To sustain this level of personalized care at scale, PocketRN needed a unique tech stack that serves nurses, caregivers, and patients alike. 

“Before PocketRN was incorporated, we were asking: ‘What partners and tools should we use for virtual nursing?’” said co-founder Ryan Saunders. “It was about eliminating access gaps but also providing resources at scale and bringing families and caregivers into the care experience.”

Supporting virtual care with a stable, unified environment

Virtual healthcare inevitably involves encountering patients with a wide range of technical skills and circumstances. It could also mean navigating poor bandwidth issues, inconsistent connectivity, and struggles with older devices as patients and caregivers attempt to join virtual meetings.

“We needed a platform that we could trust to grow with us,” Ryan said.

PocketRN faced two options: developing its own video conferencing platform from the ground up or going with an established solution. After they decided to take the latter route, picking a partner was easy.

“There was pretty much only one vendor we were looking at,” Ryan said. “I knew Zoom would work with us tremendously well and offer an extreme amount of stability.”

Zoom offered a number of differentiators from other providers, including:

• A well-integrated platform. Zoom combines video, communication, and AI documentation into one unified environment.
• A built-in video/collaboration tool. Unlike other solutions on the market that require a separate interface or integration layer, Zoom's collaboration tools are native, so clinicians can capture, document, and communicate seamlessly. 
• Familiarity. Zoom has become a household name, so there would be a low learning curve. With 185k healthcare customers, Zoom is also a leader in telehealth and is well-positioned to meet industry needs.

Zoom has since become a primary service for PocketRN. From the nursing team to the sales team, it helps the entire PocketRN team reach more patients and their families. “We would not be able to operate without Zoom,” Ryan said.

A platform made for telehealth professionals delivers instant value

As PocketRN scaled its offering, it began investigating services for automatic note-taking. Their research led them to Zoom Workplace for Clinicians, a service specifically designed for telehealth providers. The platform was a perfect fit for PocketRN, offering:

• AI-powered transcription
• Automated clinical note generation
• Seamless EHR integration
• Multi-specialty support with customizable templates
• Multi-language translation

“It was perfect timing. Zoom Clinical Notes was exactly what we were looking for,” Ryan said.

From the start, Zoom Clinical Notes allowed nurses to access AI-generated appointment notes using ambient capture technology. Reducing paperwork gave PocketRN’s nurses more time to ask and answer questions for their patients while also reducing discrepancies between charts and other documentation.

The platform’s HIPAA-ready infrastructure was equally important for PocketRN’s operations. “PocketRN is deeply concerned about ensuring that we as a company, and the services that we provide, are HIPAA-ready,” Ryan said. “We are a Medicare provider and work very closely with leading academic medical systems, meaning compliance and security is critical. We also look to Zoom to help us bridge any gaps.”

Just as importantly, the solution offered instant value to busy virtual nurses looking to provide more intentional care to patients.

Automatic notes save thousands of dollars and hours of time

Some nurses were initially hesitant about learning the ins and outs of a new platform, but adoption grew quickly as they noticed an increase in the quality of their visits.

“Before Zoom, it was hard to make eye contact during visits,” said Kelli Acosta, registered nurse and clinical education lead at PocketRN. “We would be typing, so therefore slower with the patients. Now, we’re actually able to be present during the visit.”

The positive experience has led to ongoing satisfaction among PocketRN nurses, with 92% of them consistently agreeing to the statement: “I had a positive experience matching, reviewing, taking notes, and joining this call.” 

By automating Clinical Notes within Zoom’s Workplace for Clinicians, PocketRN has unlocked measurable efficiencies for the team. They've lowered administrative overhead by around $27,720 each month and save around 33 hours daily. Nurses reinvest that time directly into supporting patient care, which may involve coordinating complex care plans, providing caregiver education, or collaborating with partner organizations to align best practices. 

The team has experienced improvements in other areas of their practice, too:

• Initial comprehensive assessment meetings with patients have decreased by 15 minutes per visit.
• Nurses complete visit documentation between visits, rather than requiring additional after-hours documentation time.
• The nursing team reports that their overall documentation time has decreased by around 60%, from nearly 20 minutes to less than 10 minutes per note
• Documentation quality has improved.

Kelli also noted that the automated task management features within Zoom Workplace played a major role in the team’s recently-revamped nursing orientation.

“The AI summaries and task features were instrumental in keeping us on track. As a result, we successfully decreased our nursing orientation time from an average of more than four weeks to two weeks.”

Building stronger human connections

With Zoom Clinical Notes integrated into their workflow, PocketRN’s team has optimized clinical processes while strengthening patient relationships. The platform automatically generates comprehensive, structured notes across various specialties that are inputted into the organization’s EHR system. PocketRN’s nurse team can review, edit, and finalize the note within minutes, ensuring everyone has the correct context for personalized care.

Beyond a streamlined backend, Zoom Workplace for Clinicians can surface relevant patient information and even suggest next steps or follow-up actions based on ongoing conversations. These capabilities have provided tangible outcomes for patients.

Ryan remembers a patient recovering from heart failure whose quality of life was low, likely due to lifestyle factors such as smoking and a poor diet. A PocketRN nurse set up regular Zoom visits with the patient, and within three months, the two built a strong connection. “We worked really intentionally on their care plan, and followed up with them to keep an eye on their habits,” Ryan said.

Not only did the patient reduce unhealthy habits, but their quality of life improved. “Looking at their remote monitoring metrics, it's clear their improvements came from feeling like they had a nurse who actually cared for them,” Ryan said. “I don’t think it would've been possible without Zoom.”

The PocketRN team has also completed thousands of visits with patients and family caregivers under the Medicare GUIDE Program for Dementia Care, and Zoom Workspace has been a big part of their ability to serve the growing volume of patients who are seeking services.

AI as the future heart and core of healthcare

PocketRN strives to be “extremely intentional with AI” to deliver personalized healthcare experiences to patients, nurses, and caregivers. “We’re striving to use AI to make us more efficient and train our team on proper AI usage,” Ryan said. “Some of the things we’re exploring include Zoom’s medical dictionary. We're also considering ways to make Zoom Chat our centralized internal chat.”

As the team continues to evolve its AI strategy, PocketRN remains confident that Zoom Workplace for Clinicians provides the foundation the company needs to deliver on its mission: empowering every clinician and improving every patient interaction, one connection at a time.