By Ron Holder

A recent MGMA Stat Poll found that 80% of medical group leaders believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become an essential skill to excel in the healthcare industry. AI has already propelled the industry forward, reshaping the way we diagnose, treat and communicate with patients. However, these advancements are only the beginning of the possibilities to come.

While many medical leaders believe in the potential of AI, the tool has yet to be fully adopted into the industry due to limited resources— time and staffing shortages. In fact, MGMA data found that only 21% of medical practices have added or expanded their use of AI tools in 2023, while 74% are still on the sidelines and another 5% reported they were unsure.

To stay ahead in this rapidly evolving industry, medical leaders must embrace AI as a tool to maximize the efficiency of medical professionals and reduce the costs of care. AI will continue to change the way that the world operates and the healthcare industry is no exception; here's what you should know about leveraging AI in your health system.

Implementing AI in health systems
Given the high costs and busy schedules of medical providers, it is imperative for healthcare leaders to optimize their time. Ultimately, sacrificing medical providers' time to work below their licensure or spend time on laborious tasks outside of patient-centered care is detrimental to any healthcare enterprise. Through the introduction of AI technology, medical practices can streamline tasks and maximize healthcare workers’ availability, leading to better patient outcomes and improved bottom lines for organizations. AI technology has started to create solutions to this problem, with the ability to answer routine patient questions, receive client information, create documentation and support billing processes.

Upcoming healthcare transformations
As AI enhances the effectiveness of existing staff across the healthcare industry, it will eventually reduce the number of staff required. That’s not to say that there are going to be wholesale position eliminations, but rather AI will be able to extend the effectiveness and productivity of existing staff across all aspects of healthcare. Billers will be able to touch and process claims more quickly and physicians will spend more time on clinical judgment tasks instead of working to get paid by insurers or documenting patient encounters. Human resource departments will even be able to automate employee screenings and easily ensure policies and procedures are up-to-date with national and local regulations.

In the near future, the advancement of technology could offer a solution to eliminate the need for scribes. AI can be used to draft a wide variety of practice documents and provide translation services as more of our population continues to have English as a second language. Some health systems are currently using automated technology to replace or augment staff that would deliver supplies to nursing units and other parts of the facility, indicating that industry changes have already started to take place.

Perceived challenges of AI
The biggest challenge that all industries will face is an overreliance on the results generated by AI. At a fundamental level, today’s society has become heavily dependent on spell check to correct spelling errors. Without second-guessing, we readily place our trust in the provided results. This reliance could carry over into the healthcare industry, which could pose a challenge due to the nature of the material being drafted by medical professionals. For example, AI has the ability to take collected clinical data and turn it into clinical documentation for billing. However, the final documents and codes still need to be reviewed by billing providers to ensure the information is reflective of the care provided and avoids fraudulent mistakes.

The biggest takeaway is that anything written by AI still needs to be thoroughly reviewed. Even though this technology can eliminate a great amount of the work that goes into drafting policies and information, that does not mean we can put our full faith in AI to be fully correct every single time.

Stay up-to-date on technology trends
Ultimately, in order for organizations to be successful, they need to stay up-to-date on technology trends. As of now, practices should be spending a significant portion of their professional development time and resources on understanding AI. Every practice should appoint professionals from each sector — such as one physician, one nurse or non-physician leader and one admin professional — to be responsible for handling administrative and infrastructure developments from all different aspects of the organization. Understanding AI will be the key to success as the industry continues to advance.

The future of the healthcare industry will undoubtedly undergo a great amount of change as the uses of AI become more widely implemented and standardized. While it will take time to fully apply this new technology, the benefits will be substantial. We can all look forward to AI giving us the ability to diagnose patients more quickly, provide personalized treatment plans, and improve the overall quality of care that we provide to our patients.

About the author: Ron Holder, chief operating officer of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), brings decades of experience to his role as a seasoned healthcare and medical practice executive. His background includes driving financial growth, leadership development, operational process improvement, increased employee engagement, and elevating patient satisfaction scores at healthcare organizations large and small.