The rise of virtual care has brought with it a slew of benefits for providers of all stripes — from a reduction in patient no-show rates to shorter appointments and improved job flexibility and satisfaction.
But virtual care is not without its downsides — administrative burden chief among them.
In fact, multiple studies have pointed out that offering telehealth programs may increase a care team’s admin burden, with one report noting that 39 percent of providers surveyed said telehealth came with a heavier admin burden. Another report found that providers who spent a large portion of their time providing care via telehealth saw their after-hours “work outside of work” increase sharply.
With this in mind, virtual care leaders and operations managers are on the hunt for low-lift, high-impact ways to streamline their daily telehealth workflows while still ensuring patient and staff satisfaction.
Here, once again, AI and conversation intelligence shine as a potential game-changer for virtual care.
By using AI, care teams can streamline and optimize a key virtual care admin task: call notes. With AI, call notes can be automatically generated in real-time from the audio or video of a telehealth call, without the need for manual input from the healthcare provider.
Here’s a quick look at how automated call notes work and how they can make virtual care visits more efficient and effective.
See related: Automated session notes and QA in virtual therapy
Simple concept, big impact
Automated session notes, generated by AI systems trained in natural language processing, have the potential to greatly improve the virtual care experience for both patients and providers. In addition to saving staff time and effort in creating detailed call notes, AI-generated call notes can also help staff provide more focused and effective care for their patients.
These notes can include a summary of the main points discussed in the call, any notable symptoms or health concerns mentioned, and any other relevant information. This can ensure that care teams have a complete record of each call and can easily track progress and identify patterns over time. The same goes for patients, who, with the provider’s help or an integration with a patient portal, can easily access topics discussed with their care team after the call and even share with caregivers or other family.
Increased efficiency and better focus
One of the biggest benefits of automated call notes is that they save healthcare providers a significant amount of time. Manual note-taking during a telehealth call can be time-consuming and distracting, taking the provider away from their main focus of providing care to the patient.
With automated call notes, this process is streamlined and simplified, freeing up valuable time that providers can use to focus on other important tasks.
More accurate, compliant records
Another advantage of automated call notes is that they provide a more accurate and consistent record of telehealth calls.
When notes are taken manually, there is always the possibility of human error or inconsistencies in the documentation.
Automated call notes, on the other hand, are generated based on the audio or video of the call, ensuring a more accurate and consistent record of what was discussed. This can be especially important in the case of complex medical cases or when multiple providers are involved in a patient’s care.
Automated call notes also have the potential to improve patient care. By providing a more complete and accurate record of telehealth calls, healthcare providers can make more informed decisions about a patient’s care. This can result in better diagnosis, more effective treatment plans, and overall better outcomes for patients.
And don’t forget compliance. Providers must adhere to strict regulations when it comes to documentation and record-keeping. Automated call notes can help providers to more easily comply with these regulations, ensuring that they are meeting all necessary requirements for documentation.
Better call quality and easier QA
Automated call notes could also go a long way toward improving call quality and making virtual care QA audits efficient. Managers can quickly review automated call notes and compare them against organizational or professional best practices to ensure key points are being discussed and key protocols followed on calls.
While not as comprehensive as full-fledge auto-QA on 100% of virtual care calls, automated call notes could be a low-lift way for managers to assess general call quality, spot areas where staff may be deviating from best practices and identify opportunities for improvement. This can also inform feedback and performance evaluation and fuel coaching.
See related: The challenges of QA in telehealth
Bottom line: Automated call notes are a low-lift optimization
Automated call notes, simple as they may seem, could prove to be a virtual care cheat code for providers, offering a range of benefits including increased efficiency, accurate and consistent record-keeping, improved patient care, improved compliance with regulations, and ease of use.
With the rise of virtual care, AI tools like these are quickly becoming a must-have for healthcare providers looking to streamline their workflows and improve the quality of care they provide to their patients.
See related: Why optimization is key to success in virtual care
