Thank you for taking the time to join our clinician town halls in January! As we’ve shared, we are still working to finalize a lot of the details surrounding our Forward Together 2030 efforts. We plan to continue sending messages and holding additional forums along the way as we have updates.
*Note: Each session covered the same topics: Ease of Practice, Get Patients Home, and Clinic Care Access.
Q&A Responses
The use of AI scribing will be optional for both our teammates and patients – it will not be mandatory. Both clinicians and patients can opt out of using this tool.
Clinicians went through pilots with two different vendors. There was broad consensus among our test audience that Abridge was the preferred vendor across primary care and specialists across the state. We really looked to our teammates and clinicians to help inform our decision on whether to pursue an AI scribe and, if so, which one. Fortunately, Abridge was the obvious choice.
Abridge can translate 23 different languages and will only continue to add additional ones. If you are using a translator, Abridge is smart enough to pick up that there is another person (i.e., the translator) and transcribe and translate the conversation as it synthesizes the note.
One initiative that is already live in Epic@ is the Medically Ready tool. Physicians and APPs have expressed a desire to be able to push a button and highlight which patients are stable. Medically Ready does exactly this, allowing teammates to focus on discharge planning by highlighting medical readiness.
Another initiative is to help address an issue we know is contributing to extended length of stay for our patients: limited mobility. The Length of Stay/Get Patients Home work group is partnering with the therapy services team to understand the current model of care and what an improved model of care would be. As a result, Hospitals have started to shift its care model to offer more than a consult so that therapists can help patients get mobilization and continue to progress their care.
The Health Access Center, and specifically the scheduling operation, will be focused on the Triangle initially. Guided scheduling, on the other hand, will have benefits statewide as it is incorporated into Epic@ workflows across the state.