Study: Speech Recognition Technology Improves Satisfaction, Workflow and Efficiency
August 13 2018 - 8:00AM
A multiyear study on the adoption of speech recognition technology
and its impact on provider documentation in the electronic health
record software at Health Quest’s flagship hospital, Vassar
Brothers Medical Center, revealed significant improvements in
documentation quality, provider satisfaction, workflow, efficiency
and reduced medical transcription costs. Vassar Brothers Medical
Center uses Nuance Communications, Inc.’s Dragon Medical speech
recognition technology. The study, “Provider Adoption of Speech
Recognition and its impact on Satisfaction, Documentation Quality,
Efficiency, and Cost in an Inpatient EHR,” is available on PubMed
Central, the U.S. National Institutes of Health digital archive of
biomedical and life sciences journal literature. The results were
presented at the Association of Medical Directors of Information
Systems Conference and American Medical Informatics Association’s
2018 Informatics Summit. “This highly in-depth study reinforces the
significance of accurate, quality clinical documentation in aiding
the provider and supporting patient care,” said Dr. Kshitij Saxena,
Health Quest’s chief medical information officer.
Sample
Size
- 1,070,459 notes completed by 687 distinct providers
studied;
- 121 providers completed an electronic pre-implementation
survey;
- 108 providers (64 percent physicians, 18 percent nurse
practitioners, and 18 percent physician assistants) completed a
post-implementation survey with an average of 15 months use of
speech recognition; and,
- 53 providers completed both the pre- and post-implementation
surveys.
ResultsThe following qualitative and
quantitative results were realized:
- 99-point positive shift in Net Promoter Score® after using
speech recognition versus prior input modalities indicating a
significant increase in provider satisfaction, while 95 percent of
providers reported introducing speech recognition for electronic
documentation was a good idea.
- 81 percent of providers reported improved documentation quality
and completeness, while 60 percent reported less time spent
answering questions and clarifications.
- 84 percent of providers reported significant workflow
improvements.
- 57 percent of providers reported decreased time spent
documenting the patient encounter, an improvement over prior
studies.
- Provider adoption of electronic clinical documentation
increased from 20 percent to 77 percent, with a 74 percent speech
recognition adoption rate.
- The organization realized an 81 percent reduction in monthly
medical transcription costs, resulting in transcription cost
savings of $1.37 million during the duration of the study.
“As we shift to a value-based payment model, it is important for
providers to get credit reflective of the level of care and quality
provided,” said Robert Diamond, Health Quest’s senior vice
president and chief information officer. “Automating and optimizing
the provider documentation workflow in the EHR through speech
recognition has become a best practice at Health Quest.”
Methodology Health Quest teamed with Nuance to
validate and share best practices for implementing speech
recognition and expand upon prior research. Through this
collaboration, the study also established a new baseline for the
impact of speech recognition use on provider adoption,
satisfaction, documentation quality, efficiency, and cost that
other organizations can leverage and future research can expand
upon. The 31-month study consisted of qualitative and quantitative
segments that covered pre-implementation, pilot, implementation and
post-implementation phases, resulting in the analysis of more than
1 million provider notes.
- Quantitative method: A new methodology was
developed and implemented to measure the adoption of speech
recognition by detecting the co-occurrences of speech recognition
sessions and EHR note change events for the same provider
simultaneously active in the EHR and speech recognition systems. To
facilitate the accurate measurement of note volume evolution by
various clinical documentation input modalities, data was collected
from the EHR, speech recognition solution, and medical
transcription solution at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, which had
annual transcription costs of more than $1 million. All
quantitative measurements were via retrospective, longitudinal,
observational study.
- Qualitative Method: To measure provider
satisfaction, documentation quality and efficiency, an electronic
survey questionnaire was developed and deployed to assess
expectations and experience regarding clinical documentation prior
to the implementation of speech recognition and to evaluate the
post-implementation documentation experience including speech
recognition.
“Teaming with Health Quest on this extensive study brought
together two like-minded organizations dedicated to the advancement
of healthcare through technology,” said Satish Maripuri, executive
vice president and general manager, Healthcare division, Nuance
Communications. “The study outcomes reinforce the positive impact
speech recognition technology can have across the care continuum
and align with areas of importance for hospital CIOs, CMIOs and
providers.” For more information about Health Quest and Vassar
Brothers Medical Center, visit healthquest.org. About
Health Quest Health Quest is a family of integrated
nonprofit hospitals and healthcare professionals in the Hudson
Valley and northwest Connecticut. Health Quest combines talented
physicians, state-of-the-art technology and compassionate
caregivers dedicated to providing quality care across a variety of
service lines, including Neurosciences, Oncology, Cardiovascular,
Women/Children's and Orthopedics. Health Quest has a network
of convenient locations throughout Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster,
Orange, Putnam and northern Westchester counties in New York as
well as western Connecticut, including four award-winning hospitals
— Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, Putnam Hospital Center
in Carmel, Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Conn. and Vassar Brothers
Medical Center in Poughkeepsie — plus multiple Health Quest Medical
Practice primary care and specialty locations, two Urgent Care
locations and affiliates including the Thompson House, a 100-bed
skilled nursing facility on the Northern Dutchess Hospital campus,
Health Quest Home Care and The Heart Center, a leading provider of
cardiology services in the region. About Nuance
Healthcare Nuance provides intelligent systems that
support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical
documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for
patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and
communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year,
helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare
organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes.
Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical
transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions
provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.
About Nuance Communications, Inc. Nuance
Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is the pioneer and leader in
conversational AI innovations that bring intelligence to everyday
work and life. The company delivers solutions that can understand,
analyze and respond to human language to increase productivity and
amplify human intelligence. With decades of domain and artificial
intelligence expertise, Nuance works with thousands of
organizations – in global industries that include healthcare,
telecommunications, automotive, financial services, and retail – to
create stronger relationships and better experiences for their
customers and workforce. For more information, please visit
www.nuance.com. Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc.
or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All
other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their
respective owners. Contact Information John Nelson
Director, Public and Community Affairs Health Quest Systems O:
845-554-1736, C: 845-240-4317jnelson2@health-quest.org Palmer
Reuther Corporate Communications Nuance Healthcare M: 978-697-9227
palmer.reuther@nuance.com
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024