AI assistant helps Hattiesburg Clinic achieve some big goals

Over the past two decades, nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed in the U.S., with an additional 700 at risk of closing soon. And with big cuts to Medicaid on the agenda in Congress, spending reductions that could greatly impact the solvency of many rural hospitals, fear is growing among the remaining rural hospitals.

This all is top of mind for Dr. Jennifer J. Bryan, a family medicine doctor at Hattiesburg Clinic in Mississippi and president of the Mississippi State Medical Association. The state has seen a reduction in public health funding by half – slashing almost $240 million.

THE CHALLENGE

This dynamic has placed extraordinary stress on physicians and other healthcare providers, resulting in longer hours, increased patient loads and significant administrative burdens that directly compete with patient care.

"Prior to adopting AI assistant technology, clinicians, including myself, were navigating an overwhelming administrative workload, directly reducing time available for patient interactions and affecting overall care quality," Bryan explained.

"Moreover, rural physicians and other healthcare providers often face additional challenges such as limited staffing resources, difficulty in recruiting and retaining clinicians, and limited access to sub-specialists," she continued. 

"The resulting clinician burnout and dissatisfaction significantly affect both clinician retention and the quality of patient care provided, thereby intensifying healthcare disparities between rural and urban communities."

The introduction of advanced technologies, particularly those powered by artificial intelligence, became an essential consideration for addressing these pressing challenges, she added.

"The integration of AI technologies offers rural clinicians practical tools to mitigate these overwhelming administrative demands," she said. "This technological support not only enables clinicians to manage patient care more efficiently but also directly addresses financial sustainability by optimizing resource allocation and enhancing overall operational efficiency, which is crucial for the long-term viability of rural healthcare facilities."

PROPOSAL

Bryan saw promise in the AI assistant technology from vendor Suki. It was compelling precisely because it addressed the heart of the rural healthcare challenge – administrative overload, she said.

"I was introduced to the technology through professional networks and my clinic system leadership, and I was immediately intrigued by its potential not merely to automate but genuinely to augment clinical practice," she noted.

"This technology uniquely promised to streamline the documentation process, reducing the administrative burden on clinicians and enabling more time for direct patient engagement," she continued. "This was essential for enhancing both clinician and patient satisfaction, ensuring physicians once again could focus more on the delivery of healthcare rather than on paperwork."

As a physician deeply engaged in healthcare policy and advocacy, to ensure transparency and accountability in AI use nationally, Bryan approached the implementation of the Suki system with cautious optimism.

"My commitment to responsible AI use meant rigorously evaluating the vendor's capability to make sure it was reliable, accurate, and leaning into emerging ethical and regulatory standards," she explained.

"This has aligned well with my broader goal of influencing national policy to safeguard patients as well as physicians and other healthcare providers from potential AI-related harm," she added. "I believe in the promise of AI and that it is transforming the potential of healthcare in our country and abroad. I equally believe it is our collective responsibility that we are proactive in our safety efforts that as we deploy AI tools, we do so with the patient always top of mind."

Additionally, Bryan's professional background includes ongoing efforts in AI governance and IP strategy to enhance the safety and accountability of clinical AI technologies. Suki's promise of clinician-centric design with strong integration capabilities resonated strongly with her professional strategic objectives.

"It became clear to me that adopting such a sophisticated, well-integrated AI technology could serve as a model for responsible AI adoption within rural healthcare settings and across the nation," she said. "It deeply interested me to adopt technology that met my personal practice needs but also could further meet the needs my rural state has with a public commitment to ethical deployment."

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

Bryan's implementation of the AI assistant into her practice has been comprehensive, making ample use of its integration into the Epic EHR. This design means minimal disruption to existing workflows. The Suki technology integrates into many EHRs, which can lead to more rapid clinician adoption as they experience more ease of use.

"Using the AI assistant, my team experienced notable improvements including rapid retrieval of patient data directly from the EHR," she said. "It has alleviated much of my time spent typing or dictating, and patients have noticed that I am able to spend more meaningful time with them. I should note that although AI has been extraordinarily positively impactful, the astute clinician must still verify the documentation reflects the spirit of the interactions.

"Realizing that tech is advancing rapidly, and these are tools designed to augment the practice of medicine but not to replace it, this means the clinician critically must still remain in control of their own documentation, maintaining responsibility for what is reflected within it," she added. 

"Ultimately, the healthcare provider should review their notes or other AI suggestions prior to acceptance, and this takes a fraction of the time needed to type, dictate or manually select suggestions."

Doing so ensures the documentation is entirely reflective of the clinician's plan or can be edited if needed and is a way to capture the excellence of the AI tool while also providing the human safety net, she added.

"The capabilities have made my practice much more efficient and have allowed me more time with my patients as well as basically freeing me of pajama time documentation at home when I am with my family," Bryan said.

"Additionally, the thoughtful design of Suki's user interface and voice recognition capabilities made it simple to integrate into my daily routine," she continued. "The technology is intuitive, minimizing the typical learning curve associated with adopting new digital health tools."

This ease of adoption has been important for her own sustained use and maximizing long-term benefits, which has enabled her to consistently use it on essentially all of her patient interactions in a way that enhances, rather than disrupts, patient care, she added.

"Simply said, it's easy to use, patients like it, and it makes both the professional and personal aspects of my life easier," she said.

RESULTS

Since adopting the AI assistant technology, Bryan has seen tangible results that have elevated the quality and efficiency of her documentation.

"It has improved the completeness of my documentation and reduced documentation time significantly," she reported. "With this extra time, I can choose to add three or four more patients to my schedule or leave the clinic early to attend one of my children's sports practices or other events.

"It has provided flexibility into my schedule for other professional activities; I am interested in including medical advocacy," she continued. "With less time typing or dictating, I have immediate time built into my schedule to pursue passions that not only help my own practice but stand to help physicians and patients across the country."

Instead of feeling weighed down, it has been like having a helping hand extended to her, she added.

"There is reliable help available," she noted. "The most notable improvement in my practice has been that I am able to provide more attentive and personalized care, which is the core reason most of us entered medicine. I am able to meaningfully connect with patients again."

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

For Bryan, AI is an area of personal expertise and passion. As a national leader of organized medicine, she just shepherded national policy passage in this technology space as to what physicians across the country are calling for pertaining to the deployment of clinical AI as a tool in their practices.

"Physicians instinctively will gravitate to tools – including AI-based tools – that allow them to experience the joy of medicine again and to free them from the documentation burdens that have really complicated the delivery of care," she said.

"My general advice to organizations considering AI-driven documentation systems is clear: Prioritize integration capabilities, clinician usability, and rigorous and ongoing evaluation of the tool's clinical impact," she continued. "Be prepared to adapt and evolve how the tool is used and be willing to look ahead because we are just beginning on this AI journey."

Things will continue to change and to improve, so be willing to critically evaluate along the way, she added.

"Successful technology adoption in healthcare is rooted in clinician acceptance but must be built upon the core truth of patient safety," she said. "Blending these two core principles is a win for everyone involved. Physicians are more willing to adopt a clinical AI tool whose parent company ethically deploys its product focusing on accuracy and transparency standards alongside easing burdens of practice.

"When editing their documentation, physicians have said they want explainability in AI and they want to be able to trust that the tool is accurately reflecting medical standards when it makes suggestions," she concluded. 

"Fighting physician and other healthcare provider burnout by alleviating administrative burdens while simultaneously meeting the demands of patient safety are the two areas health systems should prioritize when evaluating AI-based tools in the clinical environment."