Bedside AI solution trialled at Burwood Hospital

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Picture: Burwood Hospital, where DeloitteASSIST is being trialled

eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Canterbury District Health Board is trialling the use of a bedside patient communication system using artificial intelligence to triage and relay patient messages.

The DHB is starting a three- to six-month trial of DeloitteASSIST at Burwood Hospital early next year.

The system was developed at The Prince of Wales Hospital in Australia and uses Amazon Alexa voice assistant technology to enable patients to request help without the need to press a button.

CDHB chief people officer Michael Frampton says, “we expect the deployment of the system to enhance the patient experience at Burwood Hospital by delivering operational efficiencies to support positive patient outcomes, while contributing to the nursing team’s engagement with patients across the hospital”.

Frampton says the DHB will measure key criteria against the expected benefits, during and at completion, in order to assess the success of the trial.

A Deloitte video on the development of DeloitteASSIST says the current nurse bell and light system fails to prioritise patients’ needs, which leads to staffing inefficiency and extra stress on nurses.

An example is a patient telling the device that he is in pain, the device responds asking how bad it is and the patient answers, then this message is relayed to a nurse. A patient interviewed in the video says this means that rather than making several trips to their room, a nurse can just make one visit as they already know what is required.

The system also uses data collected by the DeloitteASSIST to predict future demand and therefore help with staff planning.

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