Discharges more efficient at Fraser Health using AI

SURREY, B.C.- Fraser Health, the largest regional health authority in British Columbia, has experienced significant improvements in patient discharge efficiency after implementing the AI-powered Hospital Course Summary solution in its MEDITECH Expanse Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Fraser Health clinicians using the tool reported reducing the average discharge documentation time from 12.5 minutes to 5.5 minutes per patient, reclaiming over 100 hours of work time over 1,000 discharges.

“Documentation responsibilities contribute to healthcare provider burnout, so it is rewarding that providers have found this tool helps reduce administrative and cognitive burden,” said Fraser Health’s CMIO, Dr. Amyeen Hassanali (pictured).

Hospital course summaries detail a patient’s hospital visit and are a primary communication tool to ensure continuity of care and safe transitions between care settings.

MEDITECH’s solution streamlines this documentation by leveraging generative AI integrated in Expanse’s discharge workflow. The tool automatically extracts key information from all documentation that took place during a patient’s stay and drafts a clinician-editable summary.

The text includes linked citations to enable clinicians to see the sources of compiled information for accuracy and ease of use.

According to MEDITECH’s Chief Nursing Executive Cathy Turner, the Hospital Course Summary was a natural fit for MEDITECH to leverage AI. “This was an area where generative AI could make a positive impact,” she said. “Instead of providers mining through long and complex documents, the solution does this work, compiling key information to produce a comprehensive summary for the provider to edit and review.”

As a pilot site of Hospital Course Summary, Fraser Health captured feedback from providers using the tool. More than 95% of users said they would recommend the tool to a colleague and 87% reported a reduction in the cognitive load required to create the discharge summary.

“This solution highlights how AI can effectively augment a clinician’s efforts, particularly when working with lengthy records and complex patient information,” said Dr. Hassanali.

“Hospital Course Summary synthesizes data faster and more consistently than manual review alone, supporting providers with a more reliable and comprehensive picture of each patient’s care journey.”

Fraser Health delivers hospital, community- and home-based care to more than two million people across 20 diverse municipalities, reaching about one-third of the province’s population.

About MEDITECH
As one of Canada’s leading HIS solution providers for over four decades, MEDITECH software facilitates care in nearly every jurisdiction. The company is also a leading supplier of complex health authority and multi-site clustered environments. MEDITECH empowers healthcare organizations to expand their vision of what’s possible with Expanse, the intelligent EHR.