How Tampa General Hospital Accelerates AI Adoption

Tampa (Florida) General Hospital (TGH) stands out as prolific in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption: The private non-profit hospital in West Central Florida has implemented 61 AI applications so far, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

How has TGH become a leader in AI adoption? The provider’s impressive implementation rate stems partly from a disdain for pilots, TGH Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scott Arnold told Becker’s: “We prefer to test quickly and scale quickly. If something isn’t going to scale, we end it and move on.”

TGH can serve as an example and inspiration for other hospitals and health systems seeking to efficiently incorporate AI into their workflows.

3 Tips for Rapid, Responsible AI Implementation

Aside from avoiding pilots, TGH utilizes these strategies to facilitate fast yet conscientious AI adoption.

Structured Governance

TGH has crafted an AI governance framework that supports responsible innovation, according to Becker’s. This model establishes a unified registry for AI assets, allowing the provider to easily keep track of all the applications it has deployed, their functions and monitoring methods.

Vendor Partnerships

For example, TGH has seized opportunities to utilize native AI capabilities in its electronic health record (EHR) system, Epic, according to Becker’s. The provider has also worked with Microsoft to implement ambient listening tools.

Forward-Thinking Attitude

Arnold told Becker’s he has a “bullish” outlook on agentic AI that could potentially automate care coordination workflows, such as identifying available appointment times at nearby imaging centers for patients.

Case Study: Accelerating Access with Conversational AI

One notable example from TGH’s numerous projects is the implementation of conversational AI in the hospital’s contact center. TGH worked with Hyro to launch an AI agent capable of tasks like answering common inquiries, managing appointments and intelligent call routing.

TGH’s AI voice agent, Aimee, took just three months to go live. Within two weeks of Aimee’s launch, the hospital’s experience center saw a 21% boost in the number of appointments scheduled and a 56% decrease in daily call abandonment rates. Additionally, the average wait time went from 6.2 to 2.4 minutes.

Overall, the AI deployment enhanced patient experiences, reducing friction in their care journeys and guiding them to appropriate services. The project proves that the process of adopting artificial intelligence can be both accelerated and effective.