Artificial intelligence tools could help solve workforce challenges. Implementation, however, can be difficult, pushing organizations to consider less risky administrative and back-office tasks first. 

[Healthcare Dive]

LAS VEGAS — When the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System was testing an artificial intelligence-backed tool that drafts responses to messages, a patient misspelled the name of a medication, Karl Kochendorfer, chief health information officer, recalled during a panel at the HLTH conference last week.

The mistake led the AI to give side effects for a drug the patient wasn’t using when a nurse forgot to double-check the response.

Ultimately, it wasn’t a huge issue — they just needed to call the patient or send another message to issue a correction, he said. But it could have had serious implications for the tool.

“It almost killed the pilot. [...] And it happened on day one,” he said.

As healthcare grapples with how to safely implement AI, investors and health systems are first seeing promise adopting tools that automate administrative and back-office work, which could make a dent in provider burnout and pose fewer risks to patient care, experts said HLTH conference.

But the pressure is on to adopt the tech. Proponents argue AI could help solve healthcare’s significant workforce challenges: The nation faces a shortage of more than 100,000 critical healthcare workers in 2028, as the overall population ages and needs more care, according to a report by consultancy Mercer.

While AI could be transformative, the sector has to move with caution as it implements emerging tools, experts say. The stakes are high, as policymakers and experts have raised concerns about accuracy, bias and security. 

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