1. Introduction

At the Financial District Foot & Ankle Center (FDFAC), providers are using Ember to streamline podiatric documentation and reduce administrative overhead. In a specialty where visits often follow repeatable structures but still require precise, compliant notes, Ember is helping bridge that gap.

This case study highlights the experience of Hazen Stribling and his colleagues at FDFAC, exploring how they’ve integrated Ember into their workflow to improve efficiency, documentation accuracy, and coding precision—without prior reliance on other scribing or dictation tools.

2. The User’s Challenge: Repetitive Workflows, Specialty-Specific Needs

Before adopting Ember, the team at FDFAC manually documented visits, particularly orthotic fittings and follow-ups that often had predictable content. Their biggest pain points included:

• Manually repeating the same notes for routine visits
  
  
• Occasional confusion between patient and provider voices in documentation
  
  
• Limitations in how well podiatry-specific codes (like orthotic procedures or scans) were captured
  
  
• Lack of familiarity with templating features to reduce redundancy
  
  

3. First-Time Scribe Technology Users: A Fresh Start

Unlike many practices that transitioned from legacy dictation tools, FDFAC was new to any form of medical scribing technology. This provided a unique opportunity to assess Ember’s performance from a fresh perspective.

“We didn’t use any scribing or other solution before Ember.”

The team quickly found Ember excelled at capturing Evaluation and Management (E/M) coding:

“It gets the medical necessity for the E/M codes really well… It basically never makes a mistake there.”

While the app performed well with standard documentation, there were opportunities to improve its handling of podiatry-specific content.

4. Unlocking Efficiency: Templates and Style Settings

One of the most impactful features for the FDFAC team has been Ember’s templating capabilities, especially for repeatable podiatry visits like orthotic fittings.

“There are office visits where it’s the same thing every time… I tried to have a template so it would basically just do the same objective and treatment every time and just the subjective would change.”

After encountering some initial difficulties setting this up independently, the team collaborated with Ember to create and automate reusable templates, significantly reducing redundant charting and ensuring consistency.

They also benefited from discovering the Style Settings feature, which lets users toggle between Concise, Standard, and Detailed note output:

“We didn’t know about that feature—that’s helpful actually.”

By setting their style to Detailed, they saw improved note completeness and fidelity, especially when capturing patient-provider interactions.

5. Real-Time Feedback, Iteration, and Support

Another key capability has been the ability to add voice notes after a visit, allowing providers to supplement or clarify their documentation on the fly:

“Sometimes I dictate after the visit… It’s helpful to be able to say ‘insert physical exam’ and have that included.”

This feedback loop has been instrumental in refining the platform for specialty-specific needs.

6. Scaling and Onboarding

As FDFAC grows, onboarding new providers smoothly has been a top priority. The team coordinated with Ember to quickly create accounts and resolve access issues—something critical to maintaining momentum in a busy clinical environment.

In addition to user setup, Ember’s customer support guided the team through advanced features like note regeneration and template formatting, ensuring the product could meet the clinic’s evolving workflow demands.

7. Conclusion

The experience of Financial District Foot & Ankle Center highlights how Ember can transform documentation in specialty practices—even for teams new to scribe technology. With tools for reusable templates, flexible note styles, and accurate coding support, Ember is helping FDFAC save time and improve the clarity and consistency of clinical documentation.

“The goal is to save your time and make your work easier. If you have to adapt your workflow to use this tool, then we’re not solving your problem.”

By partnering with Ember, FDFAC is building a more efficient, specialty-tailored documentation experience that empowers providers to focus on care—not clerical work.