Mercy Taps Microsoft Azure OpenAI for Clinician, Patient Experience

Mercy has partnered with Microsoft to use the Azure OpenAI Service and other digital technologies to give clinicians more time to care for patients and improve the patient experience.

“Because of all the investments we have made together with Microsoft in the past few years, including the use of Microsoft’s secure cloud, we are better positioned to perform real-time clinical decision-making that ultimately improves patient care,” Joe Kelly, Mercy’s executive vice president of transformation and business development officer, said in a press release.

“With Microsoft, we are exploring more than four dozen uses of AI and will launch multiple new AI use cases by the middle of next year to transform care and experiences for patients and co-workers,” Kelly added. “This is predictive, proactive, and personalized care at its best.”

Mercy plans to use Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to improve care in several ways. For instance, patients will be able to understand their lab results better and engage in more informed discussions with their providers through generative AI-assisted communication.

Mercy will also use generative AI when taking patient calls for actions like scheduling appointments. After the initial call, the AI tool will provide recommendations for follow-up actions to help ensure patient needs are met.

Additionally, a chatbot for providers will help quickly find important information about Mercy policies and procedures. By helping providers find the information they need more quickly, they can spend more time on patient care.

“Mercy and Microsoft are creating a new path for health systems in which we are working shoulder to shoulder to combine our 200-year heritage in health care and Microsoft’s extensive expertise in cloud and AI to enhance care for the patients we serve and improve the working experience for our physicians, advanced providers, nurses and all co-workers,” said Steve Mackin, Mercy’s president and CEO. “By using technology in new and secure ways, we innovate better health care for all.”