Inside STAT: Hospitals deploy AI to send patients home earlier — and keep them there

(ADOBE)

Many hospitals around the U.S. face the problem of having too many patients in their facilities even though these individuals are healthy enough to go home. What keeps patients in hospitals for longer than necessary is a delayed MRI scan or other non-clinical barrier, STAT's Rebecca Robbins tells me, but the end result is that hospitals are often scrambling for much-needed bed space and end up with overcrowded emergency rooms or patients admitted to an available — instead of an appropriate — ward. Now, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and other institutions around the country are implemented AI-based tools to help with bed assignments for patients from the outset. And not only do these tools make hospitalization recommendations, they are also designed to discharge patients sooner and keep them home as much as possible. STAT Plus subscribers can read more here.