How Community Health Network positions AI as a guiding principle

The U.S. healthcare system is under administrative burden, and with two million healthcare roles open today, healthcare organizations can’t simply hire more staff to help alleviate the pressure.

Like many healthcare executives, Dr. Patrick McGill, Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network (CHN) is no stranger to these challenges. CHN is a non-profit health system serving over 800,000 patients annually at over 200 care locations across Central Indiana. CHN is focused on how it can deliver care efficiently, with its current staff, while providing the best patient experience possible. 

“What keeps me up at night is because of the administrative and clinical burden, we miss things all the time. We miss patients that need follow-up, we miss incidental findings on imaging, we miss gaps that never get closed,” said Dr. McGill. “That’s really what bothers me because I think that we can do better, and we can leverage technology to do better.”

At the recent Becker’s 15th Annual Meeting in Chicago, Dr. McGill shared how CHN successfully implemented AI to “do better,” achieving a monumental productivity shift and over $6.7M in annual value for the health system. 

AI as a core principle 

When it comes to assessing technology partners, CHN is guided by three key strategic priorities it wants to achieve through the use of technology: 

1. Increase patient access to care, ensuring the technology is giving patients appointments that meet their needs
2. Strategically grow patient volumes, without hiring additional staff
3. Reduce administrative burden on existing staff so that they can spend more time on high-value patient engagement

To achieve these priorities, CHN positions AI as a core principle in the organization. But beyond simple AI use, CHN is moving from point solutions to strategic technology partnerships to realize AI’s true potential, employing systems that can cross domains rather than creating more friction by operating in fragmented siloes. 

In addition to AI as a core principle, Dr. McGill shared that the key to successful AI implementation at CHN wasn’t in trying to do everything at once; the health system’s implementation was successful because it started small, addressing key pain points with measurable outcomes, before expanding to other areas in the care journey. 

Dr. McGill shared how other healthcare executives can lead with AI and achieve similar success. 

Best practices for AI implementation 

1. Have a north star: Don’t implement AI for AI’s sake. Your AI strategy should accelerate progress toward your organization’s goals and mission, not distract from them. At CHN, Dr. McGill identified his strategic priorities and guiding principles first, then found the right AI platform to fit and fulfill those priorities. 
2. Governance: At any organization, you’ll often have many different voices who want to have a say in your technology governance. Decide who’s making decisions early on, and develop a cohesive framework so you don’t dig yourself into a hole with multiple, fragmented point solutions.
3. Set clear business objectives: Work with leadership to clarify the objectives that matter most and help achieve your business goals. This may include lowering costs, driving revenue growth, or reducing open FTE positions. Knowing what objectives you want to achieve will provide clarity for which workflows you choose to automate.
4. Know your processes: Understand your current workflows, and map the tasks involved first, so you can deploy an AI Agent effectively to take them over. The goal is to reduce administrative tasks and friction for your team, not add to them. 
5. Be patient, iterate: Start small, with focused projects that deliver visible results quickly. Then, iterate, expand to new projects, and scale to match the growth of your business. The technology is only going to get better, and nothing will be perfect right out of the box, so remember to be patient. 
6. Grow strong partnerships: Choose partners, not products. Look for a technology partner with a configurable platform that can solve multiple problems, eliminating friction and growing along with your organization.
7. Bet on AI’s future: Think about where you want your technology, staff, and organization to be in the future. Set clear goals for both the short and long term, and decide what you need to achieve.
8. Be courageous: Leadership is about courage, and this is no different when it comes to technology. Go back to the first seven bullets, set clear targets and expectations, and then be firm and courageous about where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

With AI positioned as a core principle rather than a passing trend, CHN is charting a sustainable path forward for health systems across the country. 

As the organization continues to expand its use of intelligent automation, it stands as a model for how healthcare can thrive in the midst of labor shortages, funding cuts, and decreasing margins by embracing intentional innovation.

Ready to take the next step in AI adoption? Contact our team for a demo.