Electronic Health Reporter

By Carina Edwards, CEO, Kipu Health.

According to one report, business executives mentioned Artificial Intelligence (AI) more than 30,000 times in earnings calls at the end of 2023. AI, and debates around fears, capabilities and ethics have dominated discussions in both the board room and at the water cooler in most industries. I’ve experienced several major technology shifts and innovations throughout my career but the buzz around AI is groundbreaking.

In behavioral health, we’re talking about AI every day and uncovering how it can be a great complement to other technologies used in treatment centers and practices. Our provider clients have reported it boosts note-taking and documentation processes with improvements in accuracy and efficiency. Data produced by Eleos shows providers have reported that documentation time has been reduced up to 50%, allowing clinical teams to spend more focused time with patients.

Providers leveraging AI also said they have 90% of their notes submitted within 24 hours, reducing documentation backlog and avoiding denials due to late submissions. Another key benefit is care teams indicate they’re able to use AI insights to deliver evidence-based best practices, which is excellent for improving patient outcomes.

Testing the waters
Our colleagues at All Points North (APN), a multi-site, 77-bed Behavioral Health system based in Colorado, decided to move ahead with an AI solution. APN was already using Kipu’s EMR, so they chose to go with Eleos, which is integrated with the Kipu EMR. Eleos focuses on supporting documentation and note taking in therapeutic sessions through their AI solution, which was a key area APN was hoping to improve.

Andrea Boorse, senior manager of operations at APN, shared that their clients have two individual therapy sessions each week, rather than one—which means double the documentation. When they became aware of AI solutions that could listen in on sessions and help with that documentation, they decided to test the waters with Eleos’s Scribe solution, which automatically transforms raw conversations into progress note suggestions.

APN found that the tool started to understand and recognize therapists’ style and language, making the notes get more specific and tailored to each client. This has been a big help for APN since it now takes an average of 11 minutes to complete a note, compared to the industry standard of 15 minutes.

Embarking on AI implementation
With benefits like APN has experienced, I’ve seen a shared, cautious excitement across our industry that continues to suffer from provider and staffing burnout and attrition. By removing some of these administrative burdens, they hope to combat staffing issues and improve patient reach and care.

And while there is good reason to remain cautious, I think providers can confidently move towards AI solutions by focusing on three key areas.

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