The Connecticut-based health system will be offering an AI-enabled virtual primary care service in partnership with K Health.
Beginning in April, Hartford HealthCare will launch a 24/7 AI-enabled virtual primary care service called HHC 24/7.
With a primary care physician shortage across the country, access to primary care has become problematic. Patients often must wait weeks or months to get into a primary care physician's office.
HHC 24/7 will provide patients with access to a primary care physician or advanced practice provider around the clock
The providers will be employed by Hartford Healthcare and dedicated to working through the HHC 24/7 app, according to Padmanabhan Premkumar, MD, president of Hartford Healthcare Medical Group.
"We are going to have dedicated providers who only work in this service line," Premkumar says. "At Hartford Healthcare Medical Group, we started a virtual service line for telehealth in January 2023. So, we have a dedicated group of people who are just focused on providing virtual care."
Hartford Healthcare has seen success in recruiting and retaining virtual care providers, Premkumar explains.
"With workforce shortages, we want to diversify our portfolio to ensure that we give providers the ability to work in many different ways," Premkumar says. "Many providers want to be in an office setting to see patients. But with an emphasis on work-life balance and other things that are occurring, there are many providers who want the ability to work away from an office setting such as working from home."
HHC 24/7 is being offered in partnership with K Health, which has developed the AI tools that will be used with the service. HHC 24/7 visits start with the patient interacting with the AI tool.
"Patients spend a few minutes with our AI answering questions prior to a primary care visit," says Ran Shaul, co-founder and chief product officer at K Health. The patient talks about their medical history. The AI asks how long symptoms have been present. The AI proactively solicits and understands the patient's complaint."
Based on this interaction, the AI generates a chart that is entered into Hartford Healthcare's electronic medical record, and the primary care provider can quickly review the chart at the start of a virtual visit.
"As a provider, the primary care physician can start the visit with a perfect chart," Shaul says. "That makes the provider more productive. The provider can talk with the patient and spend time explaining a diagnosis and treatment plan."
HHC 24/7 will provide greater access to care while maintaining quality, according to Shaul.
"We are not rushing our visits—the AI is cutting down on a significant amount of provider labor such as the collection of symptoms, the automatic creation of a chart, and the documentation that it is created," Shaul says. "All of that is saving time, so the provider can be more productive."
HHC 24/7 will provide care for more than 200 conditions, Premkumar says.
Advantages of using AI
The future of AI in healthcare is to enhance and simplify the patient experience, according to Premkumar.
"The AI augments our ability to gather information from the patient," Premkumar says. "It allows for information to be gathered from the electronic medical record and be placed in front of a provider, who can then make a much more informed and objective decision about diagnosis and treatment."
The AI used in HHC 24/7 not only enhances the patient experience but also serves as a helpful aid for clinicians, Premkumar says.
"The AI capabilities in HHC 24/7 will allow us to focus on patient care while limiting the time that the provider has to spend combing through the electronic medical record and asking the patient a multitude of questions," Premkumar says.
Despite the power of the AI used in HHC 24/7, clinicians still have a vital role to play, according to Premkumar.
"AI helps to augment the patient experience, but it does not obviate the need of having a clinician put the pieces of the puzzle together to make a diagnosis and form a treatment plan," Premkumar says.
Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
With a shortage of primary care physicians nationwide, access to primary care has become problematic.
Virtual visits through Hartford HealthCare's new primary care service, HHC 24/7, will start with the patient interacting with an AI tool to gather information
Based on the interaction with the AI tool, a clinical chart is generated for the primary care provider to quickly review at the beginning of a virtual visit.