How a health system drives revenue through environmental listening
Over the past few years, clinicians have praised the generation of AI-driven clinical documentation tools, saying these models can bring them back to their day.
Industry leaders agree that these tools can effectively reduce the administrative burden on clinical staff, but they are still figuring out whether environmental AI has a financial ROI. In March, the Peterson Health Technology Institute released a report studying the issue, noting that there is not much evidence that AI scribes have a positive financial impact.
But, one health system says that clinical documentation AI does actually have a strong ROI. Riverside Health, a system in Virginia with five emergency hospitals and three specialty hospitals, recently announced that it has increased revenue and net profit margins due to the adoption of Abridge's environmental AI technology.
Abridge's tools listen to doctor conversations and automatically create clinical notes to relieve doctors' burnout and improve their documentation accuracy. Startup CEO Dr. Shiv Rao explained that the technology helps ensure that billing important details are captured and correctly coded.
Rao, who still works as a cardiologist at UPMC, knows firsthand that doctors usually have in-depth conversations with dozens of patients every day. However, clinicians rarely have the opportunity to accurately record the details of these interactions, as they are trapped in various tasks and responsibilities – a problem that negatively affects clinical recording and reimbursement.
“In this country, you will not be compensated for the care you provide. document What you delivered. ” Rao declared.
Riverside began deploying Abridge's solution last May and now reports a 14% increase in HCC diagnosis recorded per encounter. Charles Frazier, chief medical information and innovation officer for the health system, noted that Riverside is identifying more risk-adjusted conditions during patient visits, which lead to more accurate reimbursement and better care plans.
He also noted that Abridge's technology led to an 11% increase in Work Relative Value Unit (WRVU) for Riverside Doctors. WRVU is a measure of the effort, skills and time a doctor spends on patient care, which helps determine whether the provider pays for their services.
In addition to helping to increase Riverside’s revenue, Abridge’s tools also provide more common results in clinical documentation tools: reducing clinician burnout.
“We conducted a survey before the pilots started, which showed that 61% of providers expressed some level of burnout, which is almost the national average. Thirty days have dropped to 27.7%, and that’s what our leadership can say, ‘We need to say that to people,” Frazier said. ”
He said Riverside’s pilots initially started with 30 doctors in primary care and specialty, but the deployment has since expanded to hundreds of clinicians.
Photo: Megaflopp, Getty Images
