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Diving brief:
- Artificial intelligence could alleviate the wicked workforce problems facing the healthcare industry, but health systems will need to increase spending on cybersecurity to manage the increased risks, according to a report from Moody’s Ratings.
- Emerging technology could help recruit and retain staff through tools that help nurses choose more flexible schedules or help clinicians document clinical care, according to the credit rating agency.
- But new technologies also bring more vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit – already a challenge for the healthcare industry, which depends on IT systems housing sensitive and valuable patient data.
Dive overview:
AI has become one of the most enticing technologies for health care executives, raising hopes that new tools could reduce health systems’ heavy administrative workloads and help manage labor shortages -labor and professional burnout of clinicians.
According to Moody’s, using AI to summarize clinical information could allow providers to see more patients or focus on higher-level tasks. A product used at St. Louis-based Mercy could attract nursing talent in a tight job market, by allowing nurses to choose shifts of different lengths and using AI to match their experience and qualifications. qualifications with open shifts.
Another important use case is AI-assisted clinical documentation, typically in which a tool records conversations between patients and providers and generates a draft note. According to Moody’s report, Texas Health Resources saves an average of 5.5 hours of documentation per physician per week using this technology.
AI could eventually play a larger role in diagnosis and treatment. The technology can analyze health data to find patterns that human clinicians might miss, which could lead to earlier diagnoses, Moody’s said.
Better data analysis could help health systems manage their operations. Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai uses AI to monitor local health data to better predict bed capacity and supply needs when infectious disease cases increase, according to the report. The health system said the AI was 85% to 95% accurate in modeling bed needs for illnesses like influenza and COVID-19.
However, the healthcare industry will face new challenges as it implements AI, including increased vulnerability to cyberattacks and data breaches.
Cyberattacks already pose a serious risk to hospital operations, sometimes cutting off access to critical technology systems and forcing hospitals to delay care or divert emergency cases. Health organizations are already increasing their cybersecurity budgets and personnel as threats increase, according to a report released this spring by Moody’s.
The increased risks associated with AI are also expected to prompt health systems to increase their spending on cyber defense, and they may also face new regulatory challenges when implementing AI.
“(…) Deploying AI in clinical settings requires careful human oversight to address issues such as incorrect responses and the risk of perpetuating biases in the data, leading to potential legal and regulatory issues. ‘equity,’ the report’s authors wrote.
Health systems will also need to respond to insurers’ use of AI. The payers are already uses AI to process claims, automatically denying late claims or those that don’t meet strict coding standards, according to Moody’s.
Lawmakers have previously criticized Medicare Advantage plans for using algorithms to delay or deny care that would have been covered by traditional Medicare, and some insurers have faced lawsuits over the practice. Providers will likely need to invest more time and money in revenue cycle management to offset the increase in claim denials.