MORE TIME FOR PATIENT CARE: WakeMed looks to build on modernization gains with AI
Serving the community since 1961, WakeMed is a not for-profit health care system founded and based in Raleigh, North Carolina. WakeMed exists to improve the health and well-being of their community by providing outstanding and compassionate care to all. WakeMed’s 973-bed system comprises a network of three full-service hospitals, a mental health and well-being hospital, eight emergency departments, a dedicated Children’s Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital, two Trauma Centers — a Level I Trauma Center in Raleigh and a Level III Trauma Center
in Cary, and more than 175 physician and physical therapy practice offices.
WakeMed’s mission-driven team includes more than 12,800 employees, 1,300 volunteers and 1,300 affiliated physicians along with a network of over 900 primary care and specialty providers.
The organization has achieved well-documented benefits from its automation, AI and cloud efforts, and is looking to apply that experience to improve patient experience and interoperability in its contact center operations.
CHALLENGE
WakeMed’s contact center is often a patient’s first touch point with the health system. Staff handle inbound calls, schedule appointments and manage patient record transfers, all while maintaining a standard of answering 70% of calls within 20 seconds. Their responsibilities extend
beyond phone support — they also ensure that incoming faxes are processed correctly so key information flows into Epic and ultimately into the patient chart. This can mean handling more than one million faxes each month.
“That can be a huge, time consuming process,” says Jason Cain, Senior Unified Communications Engineer at WakeMed. “The more time we spend on it, the less time we have to take calls and help patients”
STRATEGY & SOLUTIONS
WakeMed is automating its fax operations by using the Concord Connect™ platform from Concord Technologies and is solving some of its growth and scalability issues by switching from on-premises operations to Concord Cloud Fax. The platform includes APIs, EHR connectors and AI to enhance interoperability, with a goal of enabling straight-through processing of patient information across various workflows across departments.
WakeMed has a strong track record of deploying AI solutions across the organization, and several of these initiatives highlight the potential value of applying AI to contact center operations. WakeMed uses a commercial AI platform to analyze mortality and readmission rates, reviewing records to identify documentation or coding errors that could affect diagnostic accuracy or the completeness of patient records. A similar AI driven surgical support system is credited with saving 17 lives, preventing 37 readmissions and reducing manual data entry by 18 hours each month.
Cain thinks similar benefits are possible in the contact center to help with the millions of faxes and billions of data points it handles annually. “There is consistent data on the forms that we receive, but it is presented differently. That really adds to the processing time,” he says. “I think AI can help because I think we can use it to summarize incoming faxes and save time. I think it will be good, but we’ll still need human validation. Our ability to secure the system and validate
the results will probably determine our pace of adoption.”
Determining which tasks contact center staff will continue to handle and which can be automated is a central focus of WakeMed’s AI planning. Cain believes humans will remain essential even as operations become more automated, but he also recognizes that staff may worry AI is being introduced to replace their roles. Setting expectations, communicating transparently and supporting staff through change will be critical to WakeMed’s evolution.
“The first thing we need to do is help our contact center agents understand that the goal isn’t to replace them. It’s to take repetitive, low value tasks off their plates — things like patient portal password resets — so they can focus more of their time on supporting patients,” says Cain. “AI can save time, the ROI is real and automation will help us grow without adding more FTEs. Ultimately, giving staff back time means we can deliver the best possible experience for our patients.”
Company
WakeMed
Industry
Hospitals & Healthcare
Headquarters
Raleigh, NC
Website
The Problem
WakeMed’s contact center was a primary point of patient care communication, handling more than one million faxes each month – limiting staff capacity to answer and help patients.Â
The Solution
- Growth and scalability issues are easily resolved by switching from on-premises operations to Concord Cloud Fax.
- WakeMed’s staff gain the benefits of AI processing incoming faxes and organizing key workflows into Epic, taking low-value, repetitive tasks off of their plate so they can spend more time focused on patient care.