\n
NHS Lothian dealt with a significant backlog in gastroenterology appointments, with patients waiting up to 52 weeks. Increasing urgent suspected cancer cases further strained the system, highlighting the need for a precise, efficient triage process to manage approximately 16,000 new referrals annually.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nWhat AI solution did NHS Lothian implement to optimize the triage process?<\/summary>\n\n
NHS Lothian deployed NiCE\u2019s Employee Virtual Assistant (NEVA), combining attended and unattended robotic process automation to handle routine administrative tasks and provide contextually relevant guidance to clinicians directly on their desktops.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nHow does NEVA integrate into the clinical workflow at NHS Lothian?<\/summary>\n\n
NEVA automatically activates when clinicians log into TRAKCare, prompting case reviews in the e-triage page. It assists in information processing, case downgrading, generating standardized communications, and updating medical records without manual intervention from clinicians.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nWhat impact did NEVA have on the triage time for gastroenterology referrals?<\/summary>\n\n
NEVA reduced the end-to-end triage time by 50%, cutting the process from about 20 minutes to 10 minutes per referral, thus significantly optimizing clinician efficiency.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nHow did NEVA affect unnecessary gastroenterology appointments?<\/summary>\n\n
By improving consistency and transparency in triage decisions and facilitating easier communication with general practitioners, NEVA reduced unnecessary appointments by 27%, contributing to better resource allocation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nIn what ways did NEVA reduce administrative burden on healthcare staff?<\/summary>\n\n
NEVA eliminated repetitive, error-prone tasks such as filling out medical forms and managing communications with primary care providers, freeing clinicians to focus more on value-added clinical activities and improving overall staff productivity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nHow did the implementation of NEVA improve patient experience within NHS Lothian?<\/summary>\n\n
NEVA\u2019s efficient triage reduced patient wait times and shortened waiting lists, actively managing referral prioritization to deliver quicker access to specialist care, directly enhancing patient satisfaction.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nWhat future applications of NEVA are planned by NHS Lothian in the field of ENT triage?<\/summary>\n\n
Following successful gastroenterology implementation, NHS Lothian plans to apply NEVA to pediatric ENT triage, addressing high advice-only triage rates to reduce administrative time, decrease wait times, and improve communication efficiency for ENT clinical consultants.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nWhat organizational changes are being made by NHS Lothian to support ongoing AI-driven automation?<\/summary>\n\n
NHS Lothian is establishing an internal Automation Center of Excellence (CoE) to lead, identify automation opportunities, ensure long-term value, and build in-house expertise to independently implement future NiCE automation projects across clinical and non-clinical areas.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\nHow is the success of NEVA influencing other healthcare systems beyond NHS Lothian?<\/summary>\n\n
Inspired by NHS Lothian\u2019s outcomes, NHS England is initiating a proof-of-concept to integrate NEVA into urgent care contact centers and emergency departments, aiming to optimize rapid triage, save time, reduce effort, and improve clinical outcomes in emergency settings.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hospitals in the U.S. get thousands of referrals each year for gastroenterology consultations. This specialty deals with digestive system problems, including cancer screenings and urgent conditions. The large number of referrals often causes long wait times and slow triage processes. For example, before automation was used in some places, patients sometimes waited several months. Besides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simbo.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}