AI-driven system reduces fax processing time and accelerates new patient onboarding in healthcare settings

A new artificial intelligence-powered system developed at Penn Medicine triples the speed of fax processing, cutting the new patient intake process by a full week and freeing up thousands of hours of staff time. The system, called coordn8, was created by the Pennsylvania Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHTI) and is detailed in a new paper published this week. NEJM catalyst.

Although fax may seem like an outdated technology, it remains an important communication tool in the healthcare field due to challenges around interoperability and HIPAA privacy requirements. For example, the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) processes 8,000 to 9,000 faxes each day. Coordn8 automates the ingestion and filing of faxed documents into electronic health records, allowing patients to digitally consent to release their records instead of mailing forms.

By reducing processing times, staff can focus more on patient-facing activities, resulting in increased job satisfaction. On top of that, we designed it to make it easier for team members to cover each other. No more vacations or sick days slowing down your processes. ”

Jency Daniel, DNP, MSN, RN, CHTI Lead Transformation Strategist

Employees work efficiently

During a nine-month trial period in 2023, the CHTI team used coordn8 to survey clinical staff and found that satisfaction with the new patient intake process rose from 35 percent to 60 percent in just two weeks. Additionally, a study of coordn8 users found similar improvements (35 to 60 percent) in “effort scores,” a measure of how staff felt about the effort required to successfully record incoming faxes in the electronic medical record.

Fax processing time with coordn8 has been reduced from an average of 2 minutes to only about 40 seconds. So for every 100,000 faxes processed (currently reaching this number every 11 to 12 days at Penn Medicine), our staff saves 2,300 hours of time, which can be spent on other important tasks.

Digital consent speeds up record collection

Time savings continued in the coordination process of obtaining patient consent to share past health information such as test results and scans.

Many healthcare organizations require a signed disclosure form each time they begin the onboarding process for a new patient, which often means receiving a piece of paper in the mail. This took an average of a week to process at UPHS. Digitization of consent (now called eDisclosure) has reduced both the steps required for patients and the time it takes for the physical form to be received and received again by the patient from UPHS.

Thanks to Penn Medicine’s Way to Health platform, the coordn8 team reduced the time to get patient signatures by 85 percent by sending eDiscovery via text message. This allowed staff to get health information to work six days earlier than before, and staff satisfaction increased from 41 percent to 90 percent. Paper forms are also available to patients if they wish.

expansion

on the other hand, NEJM catalyst While this paper describes an initial implementation with more than 150 fax lines across various departments at UPHS, coordn8 is expanding its fax processing and eDiscovery forms to outpatient services across Penn State Medical.

After just a year and a half of using coordn8, we’ve averaged over 3,000 faxes per day and saved a total of 8,500 hours of staff time. Such an expansion is likely to be attractive to other health systems, large and small, looking to free up staff. But it will be important to apply it strategically.

“It’s essential for other health systems looking to apply this to identify the sectors that have the greatest need and the greatest desire to participate,” said Evgeny Gitelman, MD, CHTI’s head of custom software and Penn Medicine’s deputy chief medical information officer. “If others in the health system can see their colleagues growing, it will increase buy-in and help us better scale these services, increasing their impact.”