Moving Toward a More Seamless Patient Experience With AI
HHC PatientGPT is trained to understand what the patient is asking and triage it appropriately. It can set up an appointment or assist in navigating to the next point in Hartford HealthCare’s ecosystem, such as 24/7 virtual care, and it can help patients clarify concerns.
“A patient might interact with HHC PatientGPT simply to ask a routine medication question,” Premkumar says. “HHC PatientGPT can ask follow-up questions to identify underlying symptoms that the patient might not realize are critical, escalating them to the appropriate level of care. That is what sets this apart.”
All interactions with HHC PatientGPT can be shared with a patient’s care team, as a precaution. In addition, another AI agent sits atop HHC PatientGPT to review the quality and safety of conversations, making sure that they have been escalated to the right place or sent to a clinician for review if necessary.
Hartford HealthCare is on track to reach out to more than 1 million adult patients across Connecticut, inviting them to try HHC PatientGPT by the end of 2026.
“In order to be a healthcare system that’s truly consumer-centric, we wanted a solution that draws a connection between a patient’s questions, their medical records and their care team,” Premkumar says. “We know who you are, we have your EHR and we understand how to connect our patients to the care they need.”
MUSC Health Deploys Emily in the Contact Center
Down south, at the Medical University of South Carolina Health, an AI agent named Emily serves as a digital touchpoint for patients to manage appointments and get answers to nonclinical questions.
MUSC Health uses AI in several clinical and administrative capacities, but Chief Digital Transformation Officer Crystal Broj says that developing Emily served an operational need.
“Our call center was open for patient access from 9 to 5, but we wanted 24-hour support,” Broj says. “We had patient frustration, workforce pressure and, really, we just wanted to modernize.”
Click the banner below to sign up for HealthTech’s weekly newsletter.
