3 AI Solutions That Could Be Game Changers for Provider Services

INSIDE PROVIDER SERVICES with David Rosales

Welcome to the latest installment of “Inside Provider Services,” my column in which I talk about important things that are happening within our Home Care, Hospice, Behavioral Health, Personal Care and Care Management Organization teams.

One topic that’s been getting a lot of attention lately—and that I’m very excited about—is artificial intelligence (AI) and how AI solutions can enhance the way we work. I believe AI is going to transform our organization and how we provide care at VNS Health. AI not only has the potential to improve the quality of our care and the consumer experience, but it’s going to free us from having to do repetitious tasks that take up a lot of time, so we can focus more on the care itself.

Here are a few examples of what I mean:

Documenting Home Care and Hospice clinical visits

Documentation is one of the most arduous tasks that our field-based clinicians do. It’s often time-consuming, and it has to be done after each visit, within the same day of the visit—which puts a lot of pressure on our clinicians.

Now imagine this AI solution: At the start of every home visit, the clinician lays their computer tablet on a surface near the patient and taps the screen, and the tablet’s AI program records the entire visit, distinguishing between the clinician’s voice, the patient’s voice, even family members’ voices. Then, once the visit ends, the AI program uses the recording to capture the visit and immediately provide suggested documentation that helps ensure the visit details are complete and accurate. The clinician simply needs to review these document notes, amend as needed, and approve them for inclusion in the patient’s record.

Next, consider this convenient AI solution…

Summarizing previous clinical visits prior to a new encounter

A clinician is about to visit a patient they haven’t seen in over a month. Since it’s been a while, the clinician would like to refresh themselves on the patient’s care. So, prior to the visit, the clinician asks their tablet’s AI program to review the details of the patient’s last few visits and provide an auditory or written summary of those visits, allowing the clinician to catch up quickly with the case.

And finally, here’s a Personal Care example …

Using AI to Streamline Home Health Aides’ Professional Evaluations

To stay in compliance with New York State’s Department of Health (DOH), all of VNS Health’s 6,000-plus home health aides receive a professional evaluation (PE) every year from one of Personal Care’s 20 supervising nurses. Until recently, each evaluation form was then reviewed manually for potential follow-up or to be marked complete. “That really ate up people’s time—our team members were just right-clicking the same buttons again and again,” explains Tom Cocozza, Vice President of Operations for Personal Care.

That all changed eight months ago, when Personal Care began using AI to scan each PE form after the supervising nurse submits it. Besides saving team members many hours of drudge work, AI has streamlined the PE process itself: Any issues noted during an evaluation are flagged by the AI tool and sent immediately to the HHA’s supervisor to be addressed—avoiding paperwork-related delays, which can affect aides’ ability to work and may also incur DOH fines.

The AI tool has also improved record-keeping, since it keeps track of completed PE forms and automatically updates HHAeXchange and the caregiver record that the HHA is now in compliance. “The AI bot even updates the due date for each HHA’s next PE visit, a year from now,” says Kelly Harned, Vice President, Administration for Personal Care. “Its impact has been truly amazing.”

These three scenarios may all sound futuristic, but the fact is, we’re exploring all these AI solutions right now within our Provider Services and IT teams. Pretty exciting, right? Stay tuned, and I’ll provide an update on these solutions soon!