Terri Couts, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Guthrie Clinic, shares the organization’s experience with using artificial intelligence to support telesitting. Workforce retention, especially for nurses, is a top concern for hospital CEOs. Although the turnover rate has fallen from 22.5% to 18.4% in the past year, the cost of replacing each nurse has increased, from $3.9 million to almost $6 million annually, according to a 2024 report from recruiting agency Nursing Solutions Inc.
Healthcare is still in the early stages when it comes to using artificial intelligence in a clinical setting , but the emerging technology is beginning to show promise as a workflow tool that can ease nurse burnout and retain staff members.
Guthrie Clinic, for instance, first tested AI in a virtual telesitting program to support bedside nurses with highly trained virtual nurses who could attend rounds and review medications and protocols.
This approach is an example of ambient technology , which is one of the top use cases for AI in healthcare workflows, says Shannon Germain Farraher, a registered nurse and senior analyst for healthcare at Forrester.
“For nurses, the workflow is complex. AI is good at listening to a 10-minute physician conversation and summarizing it, but not as good at summing up what happens in a 12-hour shift where a nurse is in and out of a patient’s room 25 times,” Germain Farraher says.
Click the banner below to effectively use technology that helps providers deliver better care at a lower cost. Success at Guthrie Clinic Leads to AI Testing and Expansion
At Guthrie Clinic, which serves parts of rural New York and Pennsylvania, an AI-supported telesitting program was generating measurable results by spring 2024. The clinic’s use of the Artisight platform takes data from the cameras and microphones set up in patient rooms to analyze and augment clinical activities in real time.
Many protocols that require another clinician to sign off previously took 30 minutes to complete. Now, the process takes 60 to 90 seconds via camera, and the nurse never needs to leave the patient’s side. Nurse satisfaction has risen, and turnover has fallen […]
‘A Lot More Teamwork’: Healthcare Explores the Use of AI for Nursing Workflows
