Owensboro Health Regional Hospital’s emergency department has launched a new technological tool — ERAdvisor — to help improve patient experience.
The service, created by the company Vital, is a consumer-grade software powered by artificial intelligence for the emergency department.
Upon the patient giving their cell phone number to registration staff, a welcome message is sent to the patient’s mobile device to join ERAdvisor. Patients can then click on the link to log into the system using their last name.
Updates and information patients receive through the software include estimated wait times on when they will be moved into a treatment room, a link to share with family and friends with information about their visit, answers to common questions and updates on the status of lab results.
Rhonda Bergstrom, OHRH’s director of nursing, emergency services, hopes the use of the software will alleviate issues patients face during the waiting process.
“We have two people in our waiting room all the time that are ideally keeping (the) patients up-to-date, ideally checking everybody in (and) taking vital signs,” she said, “but the fact of the matter is that when you have a line of people waiting out the door …, that update of clinical care kind of slides to the back-burner.”
In absence of in-person updates, Bergstrom said patients may feel a lack of headway is being made toward the care sought.
“Even in the background, we know progress is being made, (and) we know what’s happening, but when we don’t communicate that out with the patient, they don’t see that progress,” she said. “And if they don’t seek that progress, they leave and seek care elsewhere; and that’s the last thing that we want.”
Bergstrom said the software has been in the works for the hospital since February 2022 and testing of the system started before its November launch.
Bergstrom said ERAdvisor can serve as a solution to many of the issues with patient experiences.
“This artificial intelligence is able to keep our patients up-to-date by using the information that’s running in the background,” she said. “It’s more of an auto-update as opposed to relying on a team member ….
“…It may not always tell the patient what they want to hear …, but it does give them that step-by-step update so they’re not left completely in the dark as to what’s going on with their care.”
No sign-up or application download is needed to use ERAdvisor, and it can be utilized on all smartphones.
