Sachin Jain, MD, CEO of SCAN Group, is sounding the alarm about the growing reliance on centralized call centers across healthcare and how they may inadvertently erode the quality of patient care.
In a piece published Dec. 9 in Forbes, Dr. Jain reflected on his own experiences in a primary care clinic and the front-office staff who knew patients intimately and could provide tailored, immediate support. He argues that the industry shift to centralized call centers in the name of efficiency has fragmented that patient connection and is creating inefficiencies and dissatisfaction.
"Healthcare at its best is a well-coordinated team sport," Dr. Jain wrote. "Centralized call centers — no matter how well-meaning or how efficient they make scheduling — actually subtly and insidiously make the process of care arguably less efficient and less coordinated. Not to mention less personally satisfying."
Dr. Jain's concerns come as SCAN has been integrating artificial intelligence into its business operations, including call centers.
In 2023, SCAN Health Plan identified call center operations as a prime candidate for AI integration to address challenges such as employee burnout, efficiency, and improving the member experience through real-time transcription, automated note-taking, and guided workflows.
Corinne Stroum, SCAN's head of emerging technologies told Becker's that AI should support, rather than replace, human connections.
"One of the things I put first and foremost is to never put AI between us and our members," she said. "We have a technology that allows you to infinitely change the way that you communicate with someone. That is truly the opportunity to meet the members where they are and for who they are."
The new AI tools have allowed call center employees to resolve issues more efficiently, offering suggestions in real time and reducing the need for members to wait while agents search for answers. The phased rollout has seen 96% of call center employees adopting the new tech technology, assisting in 78.5% of calls by September 2024. Member satisfaction rates have remained high, with an 89% overall call satisfaction rate.
Ms. Stroum encouraged other healthcare organizations, not just insurers, to leverage AI to improve operations and personalize the member and patient experience, starting with a review of untapped data sources such as unstructured call transcripts.