In the United States, one big issue in healthcare is the large number of missed phone calls. Data from T2Flex shows hospitals miss about 24% of incoming calls. This means many chances to talk with patients or offer care are lost. When calls are not answered, patients may go to other providers. This leads to less money and fewer loyal patients. Missed calls do more than just affect money. They also break the patient experience. People often call to make or change appointments, ask about test results, or get answers to urgent health questions. When calls are not returned or handled badly, patients can feel upset or worried. This lowers how happy they are. Bad experiences can spread by word-of-mouth or online reviews, which hurts healthcare providers’ reputations and keeps new patients away. Missed calls in emergencies can put patients at serious risk. Not answering urgent health concerns quickly might cause bad health results. For healthcare providers, having good communication is not only a business need but also part of giving proper patient care. Why Are So Many Calls Missed? There are several reasons why medical offices and hospitals miss many calls. First, front-office staff get overwhelmed by high call numbers during busy times like holidays or flu season. Staff must handle phone calls, walk-in patients, and other work all at once. This can cause missed calls or long waits that make people give up calling. Old phone systems that do not have modern features like call routing or queues can drop or ignore calls. Many small or medium healthcare providers do not have enough staff when calls peak, which adds to missed calls. Communication problems get worse when patients speak different languages or have hearing problems. Old phone answering systems often lack features that help these groups, making it harder for them to get help. The Financial Impact of Missed Calls on Healthcare Providers When patients cannot reach their healthcare office by phone, money is lost right away. Missed calls cause missed appointments. Research from T2Flex shows lost calls mean lost chances to book new patients, reschedule canceled visits, and lower no-shows. Patients who cannot reach their doctor may go to someone else, causing less income and weaker patient loyalty. Missed calls also miss chances to offer more services like health screenings or vaccines. Phone talks help educate patients about health programs or seeing specialists. When communication fails, providers lose chances to grow these services and their incomes. A report from University Hospitals found that using better communication tools led to 60% more scheduled appointments and saved over 40 staff hours each week. This shows how fixing missed calls helps both work and money. Patient Satisfaction and Communication in Healthcare Patient happiness depends a lot on fast and clear communication. Studies say patients want easy ways to handle appointments, like rescheduling and getting reminders. AI phone systems can send automatic reminders, lower wait times, and support many languages. This helps patients stay involved. In the US, calls to healthcare usually take about 6.6 minutes. Staff use this time to answer questions, set appointments, or give advice. But long calls or waits can upset patients, especially if their problem is simple and could be fixed faster with automation or better systems. Poor communication raises no-show rates, which mess up clinic schedules and money. No-shows usually happen 5 to 10% of the time. Automated reminders and rescheduling can cut no-shows by 25%, helping patients show up more often. Traditional Medical Answering Services vs. AI Solutions In the past, medical answering services used live agents who talked to patients. These agents gave a personal feel and understood patient needs. The services also followed HIPAA rules to keep patient information private and safe. Now, AI answering systems are becoming common. They do many basic phone tasks automatically. AI systems like Simbo AI use voice recognition and machine learning to talk naturally, schedule visits, send reminders, and sort calls. People worry that AI does not have the personal care and thinking that humans provide. Privacy and following HIPAA rules are still very important when using AI. Simbo AI and others use strong encryption and follow HIPAA to keep patient data safe. HIPAA-Compliant Voice AI Agents SimboConnect AI Phone Agent encrypts every call end-to-end – zero compliance worries. Unlock Your Free Strategy Session → Addressing Missed Calls: The Role of AI and Workflow Automation Technology Advancements Relieving Communication Challenges AI and workflow automation are helping reduce missed calls and improve communication in healthcare. AI Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can handle many calls at once without getting tired or delayed. AI systems like SimboConnect work 24/7, so patients can get help even when the office is closed. These AI systems cut call abandonment rates from under 10% with humans to nearly 0% by quickly answering and solving simple issues. AI takes care of tasks like booking appointments, refilling prescriptions, and sharing test results, so staff can focus on harder problems. Research shows AI phone systems lower front desk call volume by up to 20%, making work easier for staff. By handling routine calls, AI improves workflow, patient care, and lowers administrative work. Enhanced Patient Access and Satisfaction AI makes patients happier by cutting wait times and giving quick answers. Many patients like features such as support for many languages, live transcription, and closed captions. These help people who have hearing or language difficulties. Automated systems also send appointment reminders on time, reduce no-shows by up to 25%, and make rescheduling easy. These changes help clinics work better and keep steady income. Security and Compliance HIPAA compliance is very important in healthcare communication. AI systems like Simbo AI use strong encryption and privacy steps to keep patient information safe during calls. This helps follow rules while using new technology. AI also offers real-time transcription and call summaries, which help offices keep good patient records and improve communication. These tools make work more accurate and reduce mistakes in patient care. Workflow Automation Beyond Calls AI tools

Ahead of Intelligent Health (13-14 September 2023, Basel, Switzerland), we asked Yurii Kryvoborodov, Head of AI & Data Consulting, Unicsoft, his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   Generative AI is just a part of the disruptive impact of all AI tech on the healthcare industry. It allows to dramatically reduce time efforts, costs and chances of mistakes. Generative AI and LLMs are applied to automating clinical documentation, drug discovery, tailoring of treatment plans to individual patients, real-time clinical decision support and health monitoring, extracting valuable insights from unstructured clinical records, streamlining administrative tasks like billing and claims processing, providing instant access to comprehensive medical knowledge. And this list continues.

We sat with Benjamin von Deschwanden, Co-Founder and CPO at Acodis AG, to ask him his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   I think that the strength of Generative AI lies in making huge amounts of information accessible without needing to manually sift through the source material. Being able to quickly answer any questions is going to be transformative for everyone working with increasingly bigger data sets.The challenge will be to ensure that the information we get by means of Generative AI is correct and complete – especially in healthcare – as the consequences of wrong data can be fatal. We at Acodis are actively working on practical applications of Generative AI inside our Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Platform for Life Science and Pharma clients to drive efficiency and accelerate time to market, whilst controlling the risks.

Intelligent Health 2024 returns to Basel, Switzerland on 11th–12th September. We’ve got prominent speakers. An extensive programme. Groundbreaking advancements in #HealthTech. And much, much more. Our incredible 2024 programme will dive deeper than ever before. From sharing the latest innovation insights to exploring use cases of AI application in clinical settings from around the world. All through our industry-renowned talks, limitless networking opportunities, and much-loved, hands-on workshops. Read on to discover what themes await at the world’s largest AI and healthcare summit. 

We sat down with Margrietha H. (Greet) Vink, Erasmus MC’s Director of Research Development Office and Smart Health Tech Center, to ask her for her thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   The integration of Generative AI and LLMs into the healthcare industry holds the potential to revolutionise various aspects of patient care, from diagnostics and treatment to administrative tasks and drug development. However, this transformation will require careful consideration of ethical, legal, and practical challenges to ensure that the benefits are realised in a responsible and equitable manner.