Because administrative work isn't typically patient-facing, few may recognize the heroics primary and post-acute care staff perform daily. Care simply wouldn't happen if teams behind-the-scenes weren't managing complex workflows, preparing essential documentation, updating patient charts, and ensuring timely payment for all the care their business delivers. Savvy providers have leaned into Generative AI (GenAI) to lighten these burdens. Here's 4 ways GenAI in healthcare is making a difference today.
1. Streamlined Documentation Process
Before licensing a solution like Forcura, home-based care organizations often spend countless, labor-intensive hours manually processing documentation for new patient referrals. These teams feel the pressure not just to move swiftly (a patient's health is at stake!), but they also must satisfy compliance and regulations that could penalize their company if not done accurately. Combined with persistent staff shortages, workflow burdens like these have contributed to burnout in healthcare workers.
In light of these challenges, GenAI offers a promising solution by automating critical aspects of the documentation process. Imagine the time saved when staff doesn't have to read through dozens of pages, but has details like patient demographics, referral source and payer information automatically populate their dashboards? With less keying and far fewer clicks, teams can move quickly and confidently through their more streamlined documentation processes, leading to higher user satisfaction, too!
2. Safer Patient Care Transitions
Clear communication and data handoffs between referral sources and home-based care agencies are crucial for safe patient care transitions. However, poor coordination can lead to avoidable delays and errors. A recent survey of post-acute healthcare workers found that 44% of respondents reported that delayed or poorly managed care transitions have left lasting negative impacts on their patients. Care delays also increase the mortality rate as the time between the time a patient is discharged and receives post-acute care increases.
Thankfully, GenAI can mitigate these issues by summarizing critical patient information and shorten that window between care. Post-acute providers can review a concise summary of the referred patients' clinical histories, see their primary diagnoses and what care is being ordered to determine if their agency has the appropriate resources to accept these patients into care.
3. Optimized Resource Management
Healthcare systems often struggle with high overhead costs and under-optimized resources, which can strain their operations and financial margins. This challenge is so pervasive that Health Affairs found that administrative expenses account for up to 30% of healthcare spending in the U.S..
When implemented strategically, Gen AI frees staff from routine, lower- level tasks, can equip clinicians with information just ahead of a patient visit and can align coders to care plans as they prepare their billing for services. By cutting administrative overhead, AI helps healthcare providers allocate resources to wherever their organization would most benefit.
4. Building Greater Patient Trust Through Improved Care
Ultimately, when traditional administrative processes are inefficient and harms staff satisfaction, patients' trust - and therefore your business's reputation - is at risk. This can be the most damaging impact to any home-based care organization.
Here's where GenAI may have its most meaningful effect. If a nurse can arrange his daily patient visits based not just on driving distance, but the patients' needs, the patient wins. If a home healthcare agency can immediately reject a patient because the patient lives outside their service area, the referral source can quickly send the patient to one who does. And the patient wins. Mostly, if a clinician is able to focus more on their patients, and less on their paperwork, the patient wins (clinicians, too!). GenAI makes all these scenarios possible.
If your healthcare organization is curious about how GenAI can optimize your patient care transitions, streamline your workflows and increase staff satisfaction, request a demo today!
