AI-Driven Partnership Expands to Improve Patient Outcomes, Provider Experience

Pennsylvania-based Penn Highlands Healthcare is expanding its partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) software company Regard, which aims to combat provider burnout and improve patient outcomes through streamlined clinical workflows.

As part of its initial partnership, Penn Highlands implemented Regard’s offerings in parts of its network, resulting in an increase in revenue, a reduction in clinical documentation integrity (CDI) queries, and a decrease in physician time spent on writing notes, which has led to improvements in data and care quality, patient outcomes, and claim reimbursements, according to the press release.

The expansion of the partnership will allow Penn Highlands to bring Regard’s software to two additional hospitals, their intensive care units, and multiple skilled nursing facilities within its network. The software, which uses AI to help physicians diagnose medical conditions, is intended to help providers streamline their clinical workflows and enhance EHR review.

The press release states that Regard’s algorithms aggregate and mine the patient's medical history through the EHR, which helps mitigate the likelihood of diagnostic error and optimizes billing procedures. In doing so, the software may allow Penn Highlands to improve t   quality of care, support accurate hospital reimbursements, and increase revenue while reducing clinician time spent on documentation.

"Regard is the only software we've seen that not only works in tandem with but also improves workflow for our physicians," said Russell Cameron, MD, chief medical officer at Penn Highlands Healthcare, in the press release. "We had strict requirements when it came to choosing a solution that will improve care outcomes without adding significant cost. Regard surpassed our expectations and has even helped improve coding compliance for billing, increasing revenue tremendously."

According to the press release, Regard has launched in 15 hospitals across the US, where the technology has been used on over 40,000 patients and helped diagnose 670,000 medical conditions.

The press release further notes that the use of the software has shown a significant reduction in measures of burnout amongst physicians. Burnout is a major challenge facing health systems, with 83 percent of surveyed clinicians and healthcare organization leadership reporting physician burnout as a problem in 2018.

Multiple analytics solutions to burnout have been suggested, including using deep learning to predict physician burnout based on clinical actions and timestamps from EHR logs, leveraging AI-based scheduling, and refining clinical decision support tools.

Some health systems have implemented these approaches, while others have expanded upon them.

In August, Maryland-based TidalHealth launched a similar partnership with Regard focused on increasing patient diagnosis accuracy, reducing clinician burnout, and enhancing revenue through improved documentation.

This week, Penn State Health partnered with CLEW Medical to address provider shortages, burnout, and capacity management through a virtual intensive care unit (vICU) powered by a cloud-based AI platform.