In a time of inflation, talent shortages, supply chain challenges and shrinking capital, healthcare decision makers must be better than ever at stretching dollars. And that headwind is spurring some health system leaders to forge new paths with emergency medical providers in the world of artificial intelligence.
“AI and predictive modeling drive everything we do, and those tools help our hospital partners significantly increase their patient throughput,” said Larry Richardson, a former paramedic and chief business officer at AmeriPro Health, an Atlanta-based 911 EMS and medical transportation provider. AmeriPro operates in nine states and has grown more than 100% year over year since launching in 2018.
“We’re a data company that happens to run ambulances,” he continued. “We know where we need to be and have our resources in place long before we need to be there, which makes it much more likely that we can optimize the level of pre-hospital advanced treatment.”
THE PROBLEM
The problem an AmeriPro Health hospital partner faced was a combination of familiar issues that virtually every healthcare CEO in the country has faced in recent years: overcrowding, bottlenecks that slowed patient flow, too many dead patients due to underutilized departments and the lack of readily available and actionable real-time data needed to address these challenges, Richardson explained.
“It was a perfect storm of cascading events that hampered day-to-day operations and threatened the prospects for long-term growth,” he said. “Those were the immediate issues within the facility, but there was also a domino effect that extended to the broader community.
“It was not uncommon to see a line of our ambulances waiting outside for hours due to a shortage of beds,” he continued. “Those units were now temporarily out of service, unable to respond to other emergencies that may have arisen in the area. That’s just one example of why optimizing patient flow is so critical.”
In healthcare, every second counts, he added.
“You can have a world-class team of professionals, the latest cutting-edge technology and a facility that is unmatched in your market, but if you don’t have an effective logistics network that ensures patients get the right care in the right place at the right time, you’re never going to be able to solve your patient flow problem,” he said. “Fortunately, this health system was at the forefront of identifying these challenges and showing the determination to address them quickly.”
PROPOSAL
The patented AmeriPro Health The AI platform would create and develop predictive models that can identify recurring bottlenecks and provide decision makers with clarity on where to go to fill the gaps.
“If you understand in advance what’s going to happen with daily patient flow, equipment demand, peak times and staffing needs, then you can inevitably reduce the burden on physicians and nurses while improving patient outcomes and overall satisfaction,” Richardson said. “Our AI system would allow us to use real-time and historical hospital data to develop an initial algorithm that would provide direction within minutes.
“It was all about solving bottlenecks and creating a cohesive, unified strategy,” he noted. “The hospital’s C-suite had one vision of what patient throughput should be. The mid-level managers and directors had a different way of looking at it. So we had to align all the perspectives into a working game plan that tied everything together based on the data we were collecting.”
As time goes by, the predictive value generated is further optimized by the ever-increasing amount of incoming real-time data, allowing patient flow managers to quickly adapt to suddenly changing circumstances, he added.
TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE
The technology AmeriPro Health deployed for this care system represented the next chapter in the AI program AmeriPro Health was already using within its internal network.
“If “As an EMS transportation provider, patient care is at the heart of everything we do,” Richardson said. “But we’re also a data company. Through our AI platform, we know where we need to be and have our resources ready long before we need to be there, which makes it much more likely that we can optimize the level of pre-hospital advanced treatment.”
“Building on that success, the next logical step was to bring in one of our larger hospital partners. After we explained to them how they could use this technology for their own benefit, that partner quickly agreed to the pilot program,” he continued.
“Our AI tool is a layer. We take the raw data, run it through a Microsoft platform and then inject it into AI to give us a predictive model, which provides all the guidance you need on daily volumes/peak times, recommended staffing levels and potential bottlenecks before they actually happen.”
Once the data came in, EMS staff made recommendations on how the hospital could operate to optimize patient flow. For example, EMS staff used an online ordering profile through their computer-generated dispatch, which allowed the hospital to reduce its transportation costs by sending accurate data back and forth between AmeriPro and the hospital’s EHR system.
“The data also revealed how the hospital could adjust its discharge process and find new efficiencies,” Richardson noted. “With the hospital’s approval, AmeriPro Health went into the facility and staffed a discharge lounge where we could monitor patients and then facilitate all transfers from the lounge, allowing hospital staff to focus their time and attention on filling beds for other patients.
“As our AI program evolves, our goal is to be able to go into a hospital, layer this information on top of their EHR, and drill down into specific logistical needs and acute behaviors,” he said. “If someone is experiencing chest pain, we can use that data to predict how long they need to stay and ultimately when they’re going to be discharged and where they need to go.”
RESULTS
Within a few months after the By implementing the AI program, AmeriPro was able to reduce the average hospital stay by a full day.
“These results have prompted decision makers to quickly replicate the program at the system’s other hospitals, which is expected to add 4,700 additional admissions per year to the network,” Richardson reported. “We are currently developing strategies for the other campuses and will roll them out in the coming months.”
“We’ve also dramatically reduced our ambulance response times, and with the staffing crisis, our technology is helping us significantly optimize our resources to our maximum potential,” he continued. “Before our program was implemented, most of our hospital partner discharges were between 3 and 7 p.m. Now, 11 to 12 months later, ambulance discharges were happening at 10:30 a.m.”
The math is simple: more capacity in the ER earlier in the day, which means more patients coming in, he added. That also translates directly into greater coverage for the community with more ambulances providing better access to health care instead of sitting against a wall in the hospital, he said.
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
“Data is the currency of truth,” Richardson advised. “So it’s critical that healthcare leaders align with a logistics partner that is up to date on technology trends, understands the hospital’s mission, and how AI can be used effectively so resources and assets can be fully optimized.
“One of the biggest lessons we learned from this experience is how important it is for an ambulance operator to be at the table when decisions are being made about how patients are moved,” he continued. “The potential savings in dollars and time are just too great to ignore. We’re not a vendor, we’re a strategic partner in logistics.”
AmeriPro Health was able to provide added value to its hospital partner, in this case because the hospital embraced the technology and was able to view this problem from a hospital operations perspective as a shared responsibility involving multiple parties all working toward a common goal.
“There will always be uncertainty in our sector, but through “By using AI and other technological tools to better predict what might happen next, health systems can better adapt and thrive, regardless of the crisis or sudden shift that will inevitably occur,” he concluded.
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