Fraser Health recently announced a significant improvement in patient discharge efficiency. The health authority implemented the AI-Powered Hospital Course Summary solution from MEDITECH. This tool is now part of the Expanse Electronic Health Record (EHR). Clinicians report that documentation time dropped from 12.5 minutes to just 5.5 minutes per patient. This 7-minute saving allows staff to reclaim over 100 hours per 1,000 discharges. Consequently, the team can focus more on providing high-quality care to patients.
Enhancing Workflow with Generative AI
The new software uses generative AI to draft summaries of a patient’s hospital stay. It extracts key data from documentation and creates a clinician-editable draft. This process reduces the heavy administrative burden on medical providers. Over 95% of users at Fraser Health say they would recommend the tool. Furthermore, 87% of staff noted a lower cognitive load during their shifts. The tool also includes linked citations to ensure data accuracy for every summary.
“Documentation responsibilities contribute to healthcare provider burnout, so it is rewarding that providers have found this tool helps reduce administrative and cognitive burden,” said CMIO Dr. Amyeen Hassanali, Fraser Health. “By streamlining the documentation process, clinicians have more time to focus on providing high-quality care, which ultimately enhances the patient experience.”
“This was an area where generative AI could make a positive impact,” said MEDITECH’s Chief Nursing Executive Cathy Turner, BSN, MBA, RN-BC. “Instead of providers mining through long and complex documents, the solution does this work, compiling key information to produce a comprehensive summary for the provider to edit and review.”
“This solution highlights how AI can effectively augment a clinician’s efforts, particularly when working with lengthy records and complex patient information,” added Dr. Hassanali. “Hospital Course Summary synthesizes data faster and more consistently than manual review alone, supporting providers with a more reliable and comprehensive picture of each patient’s care journey.”
Fraser Health serves more than two million people across British Columbia. Services are offered to patients in 20 municipalities and various home-care settings. By adopting the AI-Powered Hospital Course Summary, they are continuing to innovate in digital health. The authority now intends to increase the deployment of AI to improve its decision-making. This technology and others like it are improving the efficiency of the healthcare system established for the province.
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News Source: Businesswire.com
