AI technology will soon be an option for patients at Portneuf Medical Center
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POCATELLO — Patients who are admitted to Portneuf Regional Medical Center may receive aid and information from a virtual nurse on their room’s television.
PMC has partnered with Care.ai in an effort to improve the efficiency of healthcare provided by bedside nurses. Care.ai is a platform that provides feedback on a patient to virtual nurses using sensors that filter what information is important using artificial intelligence. Those virtual nurses can then communicate the patient’s needs to bedside nurses.
“It’s phenomenal for our nurses, but even better for our patients and their family,” said Amy Hemsley, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer.
The technology allows bedside nurses to spend more time with patients.
Some of the things the virtual nurse can do includes walking patients through the admission process, asking about their medical history and giving discharge information.
The virtual nurse has the capability to check in on patients. It can ask the patient if they want to start a video call, and if they consent, the camera will activate and the patient will see the nurse on their room’s television screen.
While the virtual nurse performs these tasks, the bedside nurse can take a patient on a walk, administer medications or sit and talk with a patient or their family.
“So it helps to divide up some of those tasks that nurses overall have to do,” Hemsley said.
Patients can choose to opt out of the program as well.
So far, everything Care.ai offers hasn’t been implemented at PMC. Hemsley said the roll out is a “phased approach.” When staff first implemented virtual nurses last week, they started with a small number of rooms to help nurses get more comfortable with it.
Hospital spokeswoman Mary Keating said they’ve taken this slower approach “to make sure we are implementing the technology in a very meaningful way.”
Once AI sensors provide information for virtual nurses, they can monitor a larger number of patients and alert a bedside nurse if there’s an emergency.
The next step is expanding it throughout the medical surgical floor. They haven’t utilized the AI sensors yet, and Hemsley said they hope to have that done by the end of the month.