Children’s Hospital LA Launches AI-Powered ER Patient App
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is partnering with Vital to integrate an artificial intelligence-powered tool called ERAdvisor, which can improve the patient-family experience with clarity and predictability.
WHY IT MATTERS
Closing the gap between clinical documentation and clarity with plain-language test results and predictable wait times can ease the burden on patients and their families at CHLA, according to an announcement from Vital on Monday.
After registering in the ER, families will receive a text message inviting them to log into a secure web-based interface and then receive real-time notifications and information about their child’s status, location within the department, laboratory and image status, and changes in care.
Patient families can access the free multilingual digital companion, Vital’s ERAdvisor, through CHLA’s existing MyVisit portal, without account registration or app downloads.
According to the company’s website, it has used generative AI and machine learning to create a doctor-to-patient translation engine that converts clinical notes, imaging and lab results, and more, to a fifth-grade reading level. The AI tools also provide patient education, real-time surveys, service requests, follow-up scheduling and more.
Vital said it offers four AI tools for hospital emergency departments, inpatient stays and continuing care. It says it provides both patient and staff interfaces through integration with electronic health records, and is used in 28 health care systems and more than 100 hospitals in 19 states.
THE BIG TREND
Epic is an EHR that uses AI to change workflows. Late last year, the vendor introduced a new AI feature that summarizes previous notes in a patient record, “specific to the physician context and healthcare environment,” says Sumit Rana, executive vice president of research and development at Electronic Medical Records. company Epic, explained in November.
Integrating AI beyond targeted visit summaries and into clinical decision support — when the process is built to take lifecycle management into account — could also improve emergency care, said Andrew Taylor, associate professor of emergency medicine, director of clinical informatics in the emergency department assistant and associate director of computer science and data science research at Yale University School of Medicine.
Taylor told Healthcare IT news – ahead of his HIMSS24 educational session on deploying AI for CDS in emergency medicine – that the success of AI depends not only on the resilience of the infrastructure, but also on its adoption by those directly affected by its use .
“By actively engaging these stakeholders, AI tools can be developed to meet the nuanced demands of healthcare, ensuring that such innovations serve as a supportive extension of human care,” he said.
ON THE RECORD
“Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is committed to creating a compassionate and welcoming healing environment, and we recognize the value of offering personalized, innovative digital tools to enhance the patient-family experience,” said Omkar Kulkarni, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer at CHLA, in a statement.
“Parents and caregivers can sometimes feel anxious when their children are in the emergency department, but transparent communication and real-time updates can help alleviate some of that anxiety,” he added.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.