In an ideal world, doctors would be able to focus less on administrative tasks and more on what they do best – caring for patients. Technological advancements, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), mean that this reality is now closer than ever before. By now, you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT. But are you thinking of the ways it can benefit your healthcare business?
Chat GPT can be a useful tool in shifting non-clinical work away from physicians, improving their productivity and, ultimately, their revenue. Think of ChatGPT like a trusted assistant. It can generate meaningful, human-like text responses based on the input it receives. This allows it to assist in a wide range of tasks, from drafting emails and answering questions to summarizing data and more.
Ready to give ChatGPT a try? Consider these practical use cases in healthcare:
Clinical notes: ChatGPT can draft messages to patients, simplifying the process of creating clinical notes. Physicians can dictate their observations, diagnoses, and treatment plans to ChatGPT, which can then generate coherent and accurate messages to be shared with patients. This feature saves physicians valuable time that can be redirected towards direct patient care.
Clinical decision support: ChatGPT can recommend suitable treatment choices for specific ailments, identify possible drug interactions, and provide clinical guidelines for medical scenarios. By utilizing AI in this way, providers can save time and minimize errors to advance patient care. Note that, while ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful in this scenario, it is still being developed and refined, so there are some challenges that need to be addressed.
Back-office RCM: ChatGPT can be used to draft appeal letters, create personalized messages to patients, and aid with various coding processes. Without ChatGPT, these processes are not only mundane but are prone to error, potentially leading to claim denials and revenue loss.
How should you set your AI strategy?
However you decide to utilize ChatGPT, a thoughtful approach is crucial to successfully and safely implementing the AI technology into your organization. Before diving in, establish a clear plan of action including these key steps:
Upskill staff: This should encompass various departments, including IT, clinical and operational staff so they can help design and implement the strategy. Provide training and education to equip your team with the knowledge and skills required to work with AI systems effectively and without compromising sensitive patient information.
Prove the concept by starting with simple use cases: List out all the possible use cases relevant to your practice. From that list, identify the lower-risk opportunities and begin with those. Once the model has been proven, you can move on to more advanced or higher-visibility opportunities with greater confidence.
When leveraged strategically and thoughtfully in healthcare, AI has the power to enhance productivity, reduce errors and drive innovation. And by alleviating the administrative burden on doctors, it can enable them to focus more on patient care. As you continue looking for ways to innovate within your organization and stay ahead of the curve of an ever-evolving healthcare landscape, embracing tools like ChatGPT can help lead the way.