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OutSmart Guide

AI Letters Overview

AI Letters is the family of AI features that draft a letter for you from the patient’s chart. Today this is the Patient Correspondence tool, a single builder with four letter types and an optional AI draft.

You pick the letter type, optionally write a short note about what to emphasize, and the AI combines that with the patient’s chart to produce a draft. You review, edit, sign, and finalize. The letter that goes out is yours.

How AI Letters work

The Patient Correspondence flow:

  1. You open the Patient Correspondence builder from the Create Patient Correspondence button on the Patient Workspace.
  2. You pick the letter type. Patient Referral, Patient Update, Patient Consultation, or Clinical Care Request. The type tells the AI what kind of letter to write.
  3. You optionally add instructions for the AI. What to emphasize, sections to include, tone. The chart and the type are usually enough on their own for simple letters.
  4. The AI drafts the letter by combining the type, your instructions, and the patient’s chart (recent notes, medications, working diagnoses, relevant measurements).
  5. You review and edit. The draft is editable text. Rewrite parts, expand on details the AI missed, or trim sections that aren’t relevant.
  6. You add your signature and finalize. The letter is saved as a finished PDF in the patient’s documents.

The AI never sends the letter on its own. The finalize step is yours. The letter only goes out if you send it.

The four letter types

Letter typeWhat it’s for
Patient ReferralRefer the patient to another provider for assessment or management of a specific problem. You’re handing off (or sharing) care of a problem.
Patient UpdateKeep a co-managing provider informed of the patient’s progress. Informational only. The letter doesn’t ask the recipient to do anything.
Patient ConsultationAsk another provider for their clinical opinion on a shared patient. Care stays with you.
Clinical Care RequestAsk a provider with ordering authority to consider specific tests, imaging, or procedures, with rationale.

The choice of type changes how the page heading reads, what the recipient field is labelled, and what kind of letter the AI writes. A referral and an update read very differently, even from the same chart. Picking the right type up front gives you a useful first draft.

Custom letter types are planned. When they ship, you’ll be able to define your own types with their own AI guidance, alongside the four built-in types.

Where to read more

ArticleWhat it covers
Patient Correspondence (AI)The AI side. Toggle, letter types and what each one drafts, instructions field, acknowledgment, generation, review, re-generation.
Patient Correspondence ToolThe full builder. Entry button, setup row, letter editor, signature, save and finalize, the Draft Correspondence list.

The two articles are designed to be read together. The tool article covers the parts that work whether or not you use the AI. The AI article covers the parts that only apply when the AI is on.

Why use an AI Letter

  • Speed. A draft that would take ten or fifteen minutes to write from scratch lands in seconds.
  • Consistency. The AI uses the patient’s chart, so the draft picks up details you might overlook in a hurry, like the date of the last relevant visit, the medication list, or the working diagnosis.
  • A better starting point than blank. Even when the AI draft needs heavy editing, starting from something is usually faster than starting from nothing.
  • The right shape for the situation. A Consultation drafted by the AI reads as a consultation. A Referral reads as a referral. The four letter types each have their own structural template.

The right way to use it is as a starting point, not a finished letter. The first read-through is to catch anything the AI got wrong, missed, or phrased differently than you would.

What every AI Letter costs

Drafting an AI Letter uses the shared AI Credits system. The current cost is 1 AI credit per generated letter. Editing the draft afterwards is free. Re-generating is 1 credit each time.

If you don’t have an AI Plan yet, the one-time starter credits every new AI user gets are enough to try several letter drafts (across types) before deciding whether a subscription makes sense.

What AI Letters does NOT do

  • It does not send the letter. Finalizing files the letter as a PDF in the patient’s documents. Sending it (by fax, by referral handoff, or as a downloaded PDF) is a separate action you take.
  • It does not write definitive content. The AI draft is a starting point. The phrasing, clinical assertions, and recommendations are yours to verify before the letter goes out. The acknowledgment in the AI panel is a reminder of this every time.
  • It does not work without chart content. A draft made from a chart with very little in it will be very short.