As Covid-19 continues to exacerbate a nationwide healthcare worker shortage, health systems are experimenting with different ways to maximize stretched human resources, including technological solutions.
One company that works with health systems believes that AI could help alleviate current labor woes. John Frownfelter, CEO of the Suwanee, Georgia-based artificial intelligence company Jvion said AI can actually improve efficiency in how medicine is practiced. [Also link to Jvion tag] [Removed Dr.; he’s an MD but not practicing. Not finding a MedCity archive for Jvion. Just 1 article from Frownfelter. Linked to the Jvion site below to avoid linking “out” up high.]
AI has been heavily hyped for years but now, amid the pandemic, achieving operating efficiencies has taken on a new urgency at cash-strapped and short-staffed hospitals. So, new efforts are underway to leverage AI for an industry-wide transformation.
Among its myriad applications, AI can be used to do clinical documentation so doctors can spend more time interacting with patients and less time patient charting in the EHR. AI can also be used for decision support – to analyze many different raw data points and help physicians make sound care decisions in less time. This allows doctors to understand and see patients more holistically even in a short visit.
“We augment their time by helping them see the patients faster and more completely,” Frownfelter said.
University Hospitals of Cleveland partners with Jvion on several initiatives. One involves using AI to detect subtle changes in patients, not detected through checking vital signs, that predict their condition is going to deteriorate, said Dr. Maulik Purohit, associate chief medical information officer and clinical innovation lead for transformation at University Hospitals.
This allows doctors to intervene before a patient’s condition worsens. That’s not only better for the patient, “it also reduces the burden of having to provide extra care because something was missed,” Purohit said.
And there are more ways AI could save precious clinician time to safely optimize human resources. One is automating patient data entry given that there’s plenty of evidence showing doctors spending an inordinate amount of interacting with a patient’s electronic health record. The second is AI being able to highlight a patient’s clinical, behavioral and socioeconomic risk factors to suggest best practice interventions that would address these factors. This can focus and shorten a medical visit while improving outcomes.
But AI can’t do everything. The answer to the human resource problem at hospitals still relies on people. For instance, University Hospitals is addressing healthcare staff shortages through a program called Helping Hands, where nonclinical staffers get paid to help with things like moving patients or restocking supplies to free up clinical staff time, Purohit explained.
In essence, AI functions as a support, not a replacement for clinicians, he said.
“It’s really about the combination of technology, people and processes that (allow you to) get the maximum results,” Purohit said.
The mix of human and tech resources, as Purohit explains it, is important and not an overall reduction in the number of people working by leveraging AI. Low clinical staff to patient ratios, like the crisis-level nursing shortage, remain a danger to all.
“The aim isn’t to diminish the ratio of clinical staff to patients, but instead to utilize staff and other resources in the most clinically efficacious and efficient manner possible,” Frownfelter emphasized.
As an example, he pointed to Jvion’s prescriptive intelligence, which helps prevent unnecessary admissions and readmissions by identifying at-risk patients and recommending targeted interventions.
Frownfelter argued that to lift work off clinicians’ shoulders and still deliver high quality care, you need artificial intelligence. “It isn’t the only answer,” he said of AI’s role in healthcare staffing. “It is, I believe, a key part of the solution for this problem, which is not going to go away.”
Photo: Adam Calaitzis, Getty Images
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