Administration burden costs U.S. healthcare $1 trillion annually, but AI and machine learning technology could help significantly reduce administrative responsibilities for providers, especially in the EHR, Fast Company reported May 3.
Fifty-seven percent of providers reported that excessive EHR documentation is one of the contributing factors leading to burnout, and one way hospitals and health systems are looking to relieve this is by using artificial intelligence technology such as generative AI and ChatGPT.
UC San Diego Health, Madison, Wis.-based UW Health, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care are currently piloting a new integration from EHR vendor Epic Systems that uses Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service with Epic's EHR software.
The aim is to use Microsoft's AI to automatically draft message responses so providers don't have to do it manually.
John Brownstein, PhD, chief innovation officer of Boston Children's Hospital, also told Becker's that it is working on a similar initiative with Nuance, a Microsoft company, to use its Dragon Ambient eXperience Express technology to automate clinical documentation.
The tool uses ambient AI and OpenAI to capture details of virtual visits in context to create clinical documentation while the physician focuses on the patient.
If these tools can successfully reduce the amount of time providers spend on administrative tasks, they can have the potential to improve the quality of care patients receive.