Lawrence (Kan.) Memorial Hospital is using an artificial intelligence program, dubbed KATE, during its triage process, which has helped staff with their decision-making process and reduced biases, Lawrence-Journal World reported Sept. 10.
While nurses evaluate patients and assign an emergency severity index level, the KATE technology reviews what's being documented and looks at a patient's medical record to calculate their emergency severity index level.
"If KATE disagrees and assigns a higher level, the triage nurse gets a notification from KATE stating the ESI it recommends and the reason why," Jan Wiebe, MSN, RN, LMH Health's emergency department director, told the publication. "If the patient has a fever but didn't tell me they received chemo a week ago, the AI will prompt me that I might want to do something differently."
The KATE technology is also helping reduce bias in the triage process.
The technology does this by looking at the patient's EHR information and documents their risk factors, as well as information regarding current illness or injury.
"KATE doesn't see race or skin color — only the patient's gender and their age. She doesn't hear tone of voice, doesn't see wait times. It's an unbiased opinion," Ms. Wiebe said.