How AI can Tackle the Rising Tide of Staff Shortages in Healthcare

The following is a guest article by Roni Jamesmeyer, Senior Healthcare Manager at Five9

The healthcare crisis is dominating headlines, with the industry dealing with complicated challenges across multiple areas. After the trials of COVID, physicians continue to face seemingly insurmountable pressure. The average number of patients per primary care doctor is at an all-time high of 20 per day. It is not only the physicians suffering but also the clinicians and vital support staff that are the backbone of healthcare as a whole – whether in private practices, hospitals, or urgent care clinics. The country faces a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians, with many hospitals currently facing staffing shortages as burnout drives healthcare professionals to other roles. 

While burnout is common among healthcare professionals, so is the demand for urgency and growing frustration among patients. The number of daily calls fielded by healthcare administrators is often overwhelming, exacerbated by the widespread use of outdated technology. Whether inquiries about an ailment or appointment bookings, patients are looking for immediate solutions. It is clear that current ways of patient communications are unsustainable. Yet, amid rising patient numbers, what can be done?

AI: Supporting Efficient and Effective Healthcare Handling

The vital role of digital healthcare technologies is revolutionizing almost all aspects of care, from remote monitoring of patients to the rollout of apps aimed at supporting population health. However, other technologies are not yet being used to their full advantage. Conversational AI, for example, is a proven technology currently used in many settings, including healthcare, to reduce the burden of call handling on pressured healthcare staff.

Conversational AI can help handle high call volumes, collect pertinent information from patients without transferring the call to agents and expedite the most urgent cases to staff. Such AI can be deployed within healthcare system contact centers, physician offices, or hospitals to facilitate faster response times by collecting information and screening callers before contacting staff. 

These Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) not only play a vital role in alleviating strain on support staff, but they can also be used to reduce administrative burden and increase security. Crucially, it also helps to deliver a seamless, efficient patient experience, ensuring timely response and appropriate routing, ultimately leading to improved patient satisfaction scores.

Let’s explore how this technology is already being implemented and how it is delivering for staff and patients alike. 

Seamless Call Steering 

Using conversational AI to support call steering is currently the number one application of IVAs across the healthcare industry. Routing callers correctly using NLP (natural language processing) to the best available person, along with their relevant information, achieves many things. It lowers the abandoned call rate, keeps callers from bouncing around in frustration in the IVA call trees, and removes unnecessary work for call handlers. Supporting this, queued callbacks and SMS follow-up notifications were also popular use cases, with healthcare professionals increasingly seeking to use this technology to arrange follow-up communications and help deliver broader 24-7 services. After all, patients are increasingly coming to expect the same type of any-time, anywhere service they receive when interacting with companies in retail, banking, hospitality, and other industries.

It’s important to say that such technology is not about entirely removing human interactions, but instead it’s about empowering staff in ways that enable a higher level of care, supporting front-line staff to deliver their best. 

Streamlining Security 

The second most popular use for IVAs is authenticating users. Since almost 100% of healthcare-related calls involve PHI (personal health information), identification verification and authentication are necessary. IVAs save 20-30 seconds authenticating a user, saving contact staff from a time-draining menial task that technology can now much more effectively handle.  

Healthcare teams are also using IVAs for automating password resets and activating and deactivating employees from backend systems to prevent possible security breaches during the offboarding process. These simple tasks can be done by IVA 24/7 and remove human error potential. In this highly regulated setting, ensuring stringent data protection and cybersecurity strategies is essential, and an IVA-based solution is one way healthcare organizations can demonstrate mitigation. 

Reducing Administrative Burden 

Finally, about 15% of healthcare customers use IVAs for status checks such as test results, providing FAQs or other simple tasks. IVA adoption often starts with one defined use case and expands to other areas where automation makes sense and offers great value. 

Digital transformation is already sweeping through the healthcare sector, changing how patients interact with healthcare provider and payer services and alleviating pressures on staff. While uptake in innovative technologies is increasing across the sector, in the current environment, using technologies to support those who are handling patient interactions will translate into better patient experiences and alleviate staff stress. AI-driven technologies can help staff feel supported while allowing patients to access the care they need, when they need it. 

   

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