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Nov 07 2024
Artificial Intelligence

CHIME24: Setting the Record Straight on Generative AI

At this year’s CHIME Fall Forum in San Diego, healthcare IT executives learned about artificial intelligence-powered tools from their peers.

Since ChatGPT emerged for use by the general public two years ago, many people are becoming accustomed to using generative artificial intelligence tools in daily life. From using the application as a contextualizing search tool to creating email drafts and summarizing notes with the technology, workers across industries are finding ways to incorporate generative AI into their workflows.

In healthcare, generative AI models are helping in clinical documentation, the development of new drugs, clinical trial forecasting and the enhancement of medical imaging, according to a September report from the Government Accountability Office.

U.S. healthcare leaders believe that generative AI has high potential for improving clinician productivity and patient experience and boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative tasks, a July McKinsey report notes.

So, with all the interest in generative AI tools, especially to support overextended healthcare workers, how can organizations improve their strategic approaches?

This was one of the many questions the 2024 CHIME Fall Forum hoped to tackle in San Diego from Nov. 4-8.

Aaron Miri, senior vice president and chief digital and information officer at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Health, said his organization uses generative AI to streamline service desk operations, support clinicians and improve patient experience.

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How Baptist Health Demystified Generative AI

“We have a lot of confusing asks every single day,” Miri told a packed meeting room of other healthcare leaders. “Doesn’t matter what size organization, you’re dealing with a lot of noise.”

Often, healthcare organizations immediately jump to wanting ROI, though many leaders believe it’s difficult to find ROI for AI solutions. Miri stressed the importance of stripping away layers to understand the reason for a solution. “If you keep the ‘why’ the center of the universe every step of the way, you get to a return on investment,” he said.

At Baptist Health, the whys were clear: fighting staff burnout, expanding patient access and increasing focus on clinical practice.

The first iteration of the organization’s conversational AI tool — which Miri named Baptist Enterprise Linguistic Learning Environment, or BELLE — launched internally at the service desk to answer password reset requests. This happened around the same time an electronic health records system was to go live, and Miri anticipated a sharp jump in service desk requests.

The bot proved that it could handle such requests, and from July to October, the health system saw promising metrics on patient satisfaction and labor savings. Miri said that previously, the health system used an external firm to respond to password resets; with the new AI bot, that service — at a cost of $1 million per year — was no longer needed.

“There are other savings in your contracts if you look at them,” Miri said. “You go to any CFO and say, ‘I’m going to save you money by installing one app.’ Duh, go get it done yesterday.”

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Of course, AI solutions require continuous improvement, which is why quality assurance is critical. Miri gave the example of a patient who had written in asking about telemedicine appointments; the chatbot had incorrectly answered that Baptist Health didn’t offer any, reflecting that the model had to be retrained.

Data quality matters. You have to have teams that understand QA,” he said.

The organization shares AI hallucinations with other health systems through its EHR vendor’s library, which Miri said can help improve best practices. 

Miri shared other generative AI solutions that Baptist Health continues to work on, including an AI scribe for providers and nurses and automated response technology.

Ultimately, healthcare executives who are still confused about generative AI should break it down to the essentials and understand what their users want, whether those are clinicians or patients.

“All we did as a team and through our AI governances processes was start going back to the ‘why,’ putting the patient and the customer at the center of it, and boiling back to what the problems were,” Miri said.

Check out this page for our complete coverage of the 2024 CHIME Fall Forum. Follow us on the social platform X at @HealthTechMag and join the conversation at #CHIME24.

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