Transforming Hospice Care: The Power of AI and Innovation

The hospice care industry stands at a pivotal crossroads.

As demand surges and resources strain, we face a critical question:

How can we elevate care quality while navigating mounting pressures on staff and budgets? The answer lies in embracing innovation.

We need solutions that address the unique challenges of hospice care, enhancing both efficiency and compassion.

By automating the mundane, we're freeing up our caregivers to be more present, more engaged, and more human. Below, we’ve outlined key areas where innovation is transforming hospice care.

Reimagining Patient Intake: Beyond Paperwork

One of the most pressing issues in hospice care is the management of patient referrals. The current process often drowns staff in paperwork, stealing precious time from patient care. Now, there are tools and technologies that can streamline this process, accurately identifying and routing referrals to the appropriate teams in minutes, not hours.

Companies like WorldView are pioneering document automation through AI-driven referral intake. Their 'Referral AI' platform leverages custom AI and machine learning models to swiftly scan and evaluate dense referral document packets, making it faster and easier for an agency to prioritize rapid patient care and alleviate the administrative burden on back-office staff.

A good document management solution features the following:

• Accurately identifies false positives and negatives.
• Minimizes the risk of incorrect data entry and ensures compliance with regulatory standards.
• Integrates with EHR/EMR systems to streamline the transition from referral to care delivery.

By automating the referral process, administrative staff can focus on more strategic tasks, improving overall workflow efficiency and reducing burnout. Leveraging a strong document management solution contributes not only to operational efficiency but also to financial stability by reducing costs associated with manual processing and errors.

Streamlining this workflow allows for a patient to come on hospice service sooner, so that their medication regimen is quickly and promptly addressed upon admission.

Medication Management Workflow Optimization

In hospice care, medication management isn't just about avoiding drug interactions. It's a high-stakes balancing act between pain relief, lucidity, and quality of life. Ordering technology can help reduce the time it takes to profile a medication and send it to the pharmacy for fulfillment. With BetterRX, a clinician can order, manage, and ePrescribe the medication through to the local pharmacy in 3 minutes or less. No more drowning in paperwork or playing phone tag with pharmacies.

Advanced pharmacy solutions should feature the following:

• Identifies cost-effective medication alternatives without compromising care quality.
• Recommendations on quantity count based on predictive length of stay data.
• Provides real-time insights and reports to optimize costs.
• Medication order tracking and visibility.

This level of innovation in medication management helps reduce the likelihood of medication delays or service failures. Innovation within pharmacy services directly correlates to better patient outcomes and cost savings, which can be reinvested into patient care, potentially allowing agencies to serve more patients or enhance their service offerings.

Looking Ahead

Technology and AI will continue to transform how clinical teams automate the documentation process, approach medication management, and so much more, leading to improved patient outcomes, increased operational efficiency, and better cost management.

However, it's crucial to remember that these technologies are tools to enhance, not replace, the compassionate human care that is the hallmark of hospice. The goal should always be to lean on innovation to support and empower clinical teams in their mission to provide comfort and dignity to patients in their final days.

About BetterRX

BetterRX's mission is to radically change patient care by ending medication delays that cause needless suffering. BetterRX offers efficient ordering technology, medication tracking, real-time PPD & cost alerts, and committed local pharmacies. Learn more about BetterRX, our CRX Platform, Better ePrescribe, and Pharmacy tools.