Nine in ten health information management executives expect widespread implementation of AI technology to reduce costs and manage data in the next five years, a research by Black Book shows.

 

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By 2022, the clinical documentation market is expected to reach €4.5 billion ($5.3 billion) compared to €2.7 billion ($3.2 billion) in 2018, according to the company. The growth will be driven by AI-supported solutions, which may help save nearly 2.5% of net patient revenue currently lost due to denied claims (which account for about 8% of submitted claims).

 

The results of the survey of 540 health information management executives show that AI is being used in 47% of health organisations, while 90% see the technology being widely implemented in the next five years despite the pandemic-caused financial and operational challenges.

 

In general, the overwhelming majority of respondents (95%) believe that AI is an efficient tool for clinical documentation management. Its benefits include the possibility to record and access a holistic patient history, which could improve both patient outcomes and revenue integrity.

 

Additionally, 391 respondents are yet to embrace AI-driven technologies in their workflow, such as coding, transcription or speech recognition.

 

The surveys conducted by the company in 2020 among current and future users of AI tools and health information management professionals collectively present the following results:

  • In hospitals over 250 beds, productivity in clinical coding increased by 68% between Q3 2017 and Q3 2020.
  • The majority (94%) of providers are willing to facilitate clinical documentation improvement, in terms of speed, accuracy and efficiency, through AI-enabled tools. For 2021, 68% have allocated budgets for such projects.
  • A priority for 2021 for 87% of respondents is acquisition of AI-powered platforms for use in clinical workflows to identify and eliminate gaps and deficiencies in clinical data.
  • Among 145 surveyed hospitals of 150-450 beds, the implementation of AI-driven initiatives for clinical documentation has resulted on average in €2-million ($2.3-million) financial improvement from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020, which is an increase of 27% compared to the same period in the previous year.
  • Quality improvements are confirmed by 97% of the hospitals within six months of using AI-powered tools.


According to Doug Brown, President of Black Book, the implementation of AI-driven clinical documentation tools "allows providers to explore new opportunities with payers because hospitals have the data to show where quality outcomes are performing best". “It definitely maximised the revenue cycle efficiency," he says.

 

Source: PR Newswire

Image credit: metamorworks via iStock

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