Parc Taulí bets on artificial intelligence in the management of emergency services - #BHHMembersInitiatives

Parc Taulí has created a new unit in the emergency department, the Advanced Resolution Care Unit (ARA), made up of nurses and supported by an artificial intelligence software. With this new tool, the nursing team guides and treats patients with low complexity and high incidence pathologies, such as: cervicalgia, sprained ankles, urinary infections and vertigo, among others; significantly decreasing waiting times without losing the quality and safety of healthcare assistance. BHH member Mediktor is the developer of the software used in the ARA Unit, which has been specifically adapted for this project in collaboration with Parc Tauli’s Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT). Its symptom checker, the most accurate for triage and prediagnosis clinically validated, offers the right decision-making support in an organised, fast and efficient way. The nursing staff of the ARA Unit, trained in advance, start the patient’s assistential journey through the software integrated within Parc Taulí’s informatic system. By asking questions aimed at the case of each particular patient, the nursing staff obtains a list of possible diseases that can be confirmed or ruled out by performing complementary tests. Lastly, the corresponding treatments will be prescribed, following the protocols defined by the hospital’s professionals themselves. The nursing staff is in charge of confirming the final diagnosis and generating a care report. There will always be a physician available assigned to the Unit. The obtained care report is attached to the clinical history of each patient automatically. Just as Elisabet Vives, Head of the Emergency Department points out, “the incorporation of the ARA Unit entails significant progress in the assistance of the patients of the Emergency Unit, as it integrates a new level of assistance in which the nurses, with an advanced skill set and the support of an artificial intelligence software, resolve low complexity consultations.” Vives adds that “this system has a high level resolution which allows for the reduction of assistential waiting times and, simultaneously, the improvement of the patient’s experience. The ARA Unit is of paramount relevance in the visibility of the nurses of the Emergency Department and their competency development, as well as in the integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare processes.” Every year over 130,000 patients come into Parc Taulí’s emergency department. The ARA Unit bets on a hybrid model that empowers nurses with the help of an artificial intelligence software. It involves the implementation of an innovative care process, in which it is possible to treat pathologies with low complexity but high frequency. Learn more about BHH member Mediktor HERE.