7 Use Cases of Healthcare AI to Improve Office Workflow Management

You don't have to look far to see the use cases of AI in healthcare – diagnostics, robotic surgery, and much more. But what about the time-sucking tasks that get in the way of those important patient touchpoints?

Artificial intelligence and automation can do so much more for patient and employee experience – even in a small medical office. With the right tools, you can:

• Optimize productivity

• Promote teamwork

• Increase morale

• Amplify profits

It's no wonder AI is taking hold in healthcare at an accelerated rate, just as it has in other fields (banking, media, retail) for many years.

Of course, it all comes back to patient satisfaction. (You knew it would.) By leveraging AI, your staff will feel less bogged down with office tasks. And they’ll have more time and energy for meaningful conversations with patients.

7 Use Cases of AI in Healthcare

Let's explore specific use cases of AI in healthcare and the medical practice solutions it offers small and medium-sized clinics:

1. Billing & claims

2. Coding

3. Records & informatics

4. Scribes & medical assistants

5. Marketing & reputation management 

6. HR & operations

7. Scheduling
   
   

1. Billing & Claims

Automated medical billing software is a no-brainer for efficiency. But there are other ways medical billing AI and automation can streamline billing and claims. 

When text is free (not scanned), you can quickly access patient information across multiple visits. This allows claims AI to reduce manual data entry. From there, your staff can easily cross-reference and auto-populate. 

AI can learn to spot possible documentation errors immediately. This keeps the office from having to deal with headaches later in the process.

2. Coding

We have all the respect in the world for people who take the time and effort to learn to code. But let's face it: For small medical practices, hiring an excellent coder is often out of reach. This leads to:

• Claims-processing delays

• Trouble acquiring prior authorizations

• Underpayments

• Denials

AI medical coding uses algorithm-powered category auditors to optimize coding. This ensures it's both correct and complete. That way, you don't leave money sitting on the table with private and public insurance programs, while you struggle to make a profit. 

This is how to improve workflow in a medical office and increase profitability and employee satisfaction at the same time.

3. Patient Records & Informatics

AI in health informatics is a smart way to review mounds of billing and coding data across visits and patients to identify trends:

• Alerts of potential contraindications

• Predict risk and intervene when lifestyle changes and medical care can best change a disease's course

• Understand the overall health of your patient population through AI medical records
  
  

Functional features help you complete certainty assessments and understand temporal relationships. All of this promotes more personalized care and complements (but doesn’t replace) professional decision-making.

Real-time analytics expedite those decisions. Software platforms, for example, combine … ‘

• Predictive analytics

• Problem-solving

• Systems engineering
  
  

… to manage patient flow throughout the health system while preserving clinical quality, safety, and patient experience, resulting in more positive reviews.

This may sound like a luxury reserved for big hospital networks. In reality, using AI to improve electronic health records is increasingly common and accessible to smaller offices. This is a game-changer for workflow management in healthcare, particularly in a private practice struggling with limited resources.

4. Scribes & Medical Assistants

The pros of AI in healthcare records don't stop here.

Clinician burnout is on the rise. The top reason for this is no surprise -- misalignment between the compassionate caregiver and the convoluted, overrun healthcare system in which they work. The AI medical scribe is the answer to clinics that are constantly being told to get more done with fewer resources to keep up with regulations, patient expectations, and competition.

AI medical assistants reduce the documentation burden, allowing for more eye-to-eye contact and a renewed focus on people over paperwork.

5. Marketing & Reputation Management

From the medical AI chatbot to email marketing to social media publishing automation, AI can keep you connected with existing patients. It promotes a better patient experience and can even improve community health. 

Your online reputation is as important as ever! Incorporating AI systems makes it easy and convenient for offices to capture patient reviews.

These tasks once required too much extra effort from someone in your office. Now, much of this can be managed in one sitting, and then scheduled in advance via automation. Automated medical marketing eliminates productivity-killing multitasking.

For example, AI chatbots on your website and Facebook Messenger can answer the basic, common questions your staff gets 10x a day. They offer a quick answer without interrupting staff. 

And here's the best part. This may sound impersonal to some, but patients today want self-service options. AI medical marketing software can give them that option all while freeing your team up for more stimulating and productive tasks.

Marketing automation for healthcare is a win-win for growing the office-community relationship.

6. HR & Management

HR automation software is a suite of tools that help small practices:

• Optimize the schedule

• Give people much-needed time off while reducing strain on those left

• Plan out compensation with integrated payroll reporting to maximize your budget

• Ensure compliance with meal & break laws

• Track HIPAA, cybersecurity, coding, & other training completion

It also enhances how HR supports management as it optimizes productivity while balancing morale, patient satisfaction, profitability, compliance, and other clinic goals. The best medical practice management software includes both AI and automation features. It lessens the workload in non-clinical areas, which improves how well the clinical side can function. Around the industry, automation is streamlining medical business operations that lean heavily on repetitive tasks such as patient forms and reputation management.

As a bonus, all of this improves how employees feel about their contribution. That's critical in 2022 and beyond. Today's employees want to feel like they make a difference.

7. Scheduling

We'd be remiss if we left out scheduling among our use cases in AI in healthcare. This is perhaps the simplest, yet most impactful, way that AI solves healthcare practice management for the little guys.

Ever consider how much time phone tag wastes when it comes to appointment reminders? What about the endless voicemails about rescheduling and being forced to double-book your days? Medical scheduling automation practically wrote the book on how to improve workflow in a medical office:

• Scheduling appointments

• Updating your schedule

• Warnings about double-booking

• Reminding patients about appointments

• Telling patients what to bring to appointments and allowing them to fill out paperwork in advance
  
  

Scheduling analytics can help you further streamline visits by easing scheduling pressure, keeping you on track, reducing patient wait, and maximizing the schedule.

Increasing Patient Volume With Healthcare AI

AI and automation promote effective communication and build practice-patient relationships for healthier communities. Even small clinics are using AI for schedule, inventory, revenue, and relationship management – and more.

Is your practice using AI to streamline everyday tasks? Do the options of what's available seem overwhelming? Your medical practice management firm may be able to consult you on integrating AI solutions that will alleviate your office’s hassles.

With the smart use of AI, you can devote more time to patients, and even increase patient volume. And isn’t helping as many people as possible what your staff was born to do?