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Mountain View, CA (Dec. 2, 2024) – While providing the best care possible to their communities is always a top priority for physicians, nurses and clinical staff, essential yet time-consuming tasks often add up, which can take valuable time away from patient care. Several technologies have been implemented at El Camino Health recently to help improve clinical care, patient experience and clinician efficiency, allowing staff to concentrate on providing thorough, comprehensive and compassionate care.
“For us, innovation is really about removing pain points within the hospital. If we can solve issues within processes that aren’t working as smoothly as they could, that is going to result in better outcomes for our patients,” said Deb Muro, chief information officer at El Camino Health. “Investing in cutting-edge solutions allows our world class caregivers and staff to deliver the best care and experience possible to every patient.”
Those innovations include an ambient listening program that reduces the time it takes for clinicians to compose detailed notes during and after appointments. Artificial intelligence not only transcribes appointments, but organizes the information into clinically-significant notes to refer back to and implement next steps in care, something that usually takes clinicians hours to complete each week.
“Physicians often will do this in the evening after they’ve had a long day in the clinic. They have to sit down and try to remember every conversation they had and what occurred. This technology allows them to simply review the AI notes and approve them, giving themselves, collaborating staff and patients faster access to the latest information,” Muro said. “This technology also allows the clinician to focus on interacting with patients rather than trying to write down everything they’re talking about, which is certainly preferred by both provider and patient.”
Another new addition is not only saving time, but is also putting a smile on patients’ faces when they need it most. Robots recently added to the outpatient surgery department help deliver specimens to the laboratory, medications from the pharmacy and even escort patients through the halls of the hospital.
“The wayfinding capabilities of the robots was actually something that was suggested by one of our nurses, as they were constantly having to leave patient care areas to help patients find their way to their appointments,” Muro said. “We tried it out and patients absolutely love it. It actually distracts them when they come in and they’re concerned about their upcoming surgery. The robot puts them at ease and makes them chuckle. A lot of patients even take their picture with it.”
Not only are the robots helping patients, but they’re also improving efficiency and saving staff time they used to spend making trips to and from the pharmacy and laboratory.
“Sometimes we would have to wait for a medication from the pharmacy to give to a patient or we’d have to wait for lab results due to a delay in the specimens being delivered. Now the robots take care of all of those things,” said Jodi Ridgway, a registered nurse in outpatient surgery at El Camino Health. “The pharmacist fills the prescription and puts it in the robot and delivers it immediately. We can send our labs right down the hall with the robot immediately after a blood draw. It’s really been a big help in our small department where every minute saved makes a big difference.”
Artificial intelligence is also assisting radiologists and pathologists by prioritizing scans and flagging concerns, improving the speed and accuracy of the diagnostic process.
“These AI algorithms do not replace the expertise of those reading the scans, but it allows them to get a quicker reading from an image and highlights issues that could be missed with the human eye alone,” Muro said. “That helps us admit the patient faster, take care of them more thoroughly and recommend the best therapy possible to treat their condition.”
Several additional projects are planned for the future, with the goal of addressing needs in clinical care, medical technology, clinical research, compassionate care services and other emerging areas.
