Editorial
The Gist
- Enhanced engagement. AI improves patient-provider engagement before, during and after encounters.
- Streamlined administration. AI assists nurses and administrators, enhancing in-person and virtual patient experiences.
- Better follow-up. Personalized follow-up care is streamlined with AI, ensuring continuity and better outcomes.
Healthcare is rapidly evolving to meet patient needs, but the sector can be slow to embrace technological change. Many in the industry believe that no change is the safest option, which is understandable given the sensitive nature of personal data and the stakes involved in patient care.
This cautious approach is particularly evident in the adoption of AI, as many healthcare organizations prefer to stick with familiar strategies rather than risk potential issues such as patient data breaches or AI errors in critical situations. However, the integration of AI in customer experience within healthcare is becoming increasingly important to meet the evolving expectations of patients.
A recent study found that 83% of patients report poor communication as the worst part of their healthcare experience, demonstrating a strong need for better patient care systems. AI is key to supporting this evolution of patient-provider engagement.
Accelerated by the pandemic, patients have grown to expect the flexibility and efficiency that comes with technically advanced patient care, like telehealth, streamlined intake processes and accessible outpatient instruction. There are huge benefits for clinicians as well, saving time and energy for staff already facing burnout. By implementing technology in risk-averse, cost-efficient ways, AI in customer experience can transform patient and clinician experience before, during and after an encounter.
AI in Customer Experience Transforms the Healthcare Experience
Before arriving at an appointment, several things must happen to get a patient through the door and into the exam room. Someone must evaluate their symptoms or situation, gauge the need for an appointment, find the right provider that works for their needs and insurance and schedule the encounter. By the time patients get to engaging with nurses or doctors, they are exhausted from the healthcare journey and oftentimes can be anxious about the process as a whole.
AI in customer experience can reduce the stress and strain on patients that occurs before they even see a doctor. For example, AI can provide insights on in-network and marketwide options by organizing provider summaries by specialty and summarizing ratings and reviews to outline past performance. Such tools have the potential to alleviate patient unease and enhance their experience right from the initial touchpoint.
AI can also assist in prioritizing patient cases based on the severity of symptoms by analyzing historical data and current symptoms. This supports healthcare providers by identifying urgent cases that require immediate attention, and patients can rest-assured that their doctors are prioritizing them when they need it most.
Related Article: Transforming Customer and Employee Experiences Across Industries With AI
In-Person and Virtual Patient Experiences Improve With AI
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Hospital nurses spend three hours of a typical 12-hour shift away from the patients' bedside to complete regulatory requirements, redundant paperwork and other non-direct care. Here lies a huge opportunity to improve patient experience and outcomes by allowing AI to support nurses and office administrators in their administrative work.
Patient experiences tend to be more positive when a medical professional spends more time at the bedside without distractions. According to the World Health Organization, there were about 28 million nurses in the world as of 2020. Saving each nurse just a few minutes each day gives them a chance to regroup and reset, reducing some of the key factors contributing to burnout and can ultimately result in more time to focus on patient care.
AI can also support telehealth and virtual appointments, bringing accessible medicine to the doorsteps of elderly patients struggling to travel or those in rural areas without access to specialists. For example, AI can streamline the history-taking process by generating prompts based on patient responses to get to the root of the problem more efficiently. Generative AI-based summarization can also reduce the transcription and note-taking process for the patient record, freeing up staff to help other patients.
As we progress, these same technologies can provide relevant information and treatment recommendations based on the patient's medical history, current symptoms and existing literature. This can aid doctors in informed decision-making during virtual consultations. To support the patient experience, natural language processing (NPL) in AI can enhance communication during virtual appointments. This enables the analysis of spoken or written language, helping healthcare providers understand patients' concerns and respond more effectively.
Related Article: AI in Customer Experience: Trends to Watch in 2024
Personalization Makes the Follow-up That Much Better
With clinician oversight, AI can make the outpatient post-care experience much more clear, concise and streamlined. AI can support continuity of care, an essential aspect of strong patient outcomes, by summarizing discharge information and follow-up needs, generating care summaries for referrals and synthesizing specialist notes for primary-care physician teams.
And days after the appointment, AI can streamline follow-ups by analyzing customer feedback; creating personalized care instructions, videos, visuals and communications; and generating notifications and outbound communications.
Related Article: How AI and Data Analytics Drive Personalization Strategies
In the Case of AI in Healthcare, Change Is for the Best
AI holds limitless potential in healthcare, offering numerous use cases and opportunities to optimize and improve the entire patient and clinician journey, from the initial symptom recognition to an encounter with providers, scheduling of follow-ups and the final payment for services. Embracing change and adopting new technology is crucial for healthcare systems to deliver optimal patient care.
AI, with its efficiency in addressing key issues, proves to be a cost-effective and time-efficient solution that benefits both patients and healthcare providers. Additionally, the integration of AI in customer experience within healthcare is becoming increasingly important to enhance patient satisfaction and engagement.
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