Providence is expanding its use of Epic’s native AI tools as part of a broader effort to reduce application complexity, streamline clinician workflows and limit reliance on standalone point solutions.
The Renton, Wash.-based health system recently launched 12 new Epic AI use cases following its April EHR upgrade, according to Adar Palis, senior vice president and chief of clinical applications and technology at Providence. The rollout includes clinical documentation summaries, coding assistance, predictive denials and AI-powered reporting tools.
But for Providence, the larger strategy is not simply adopting more AI tools. It is consolidating functionality inside the EHR wherever possible.
“We do want to try and reduce the number of applications that we have,” Mr. Palis told Becker’s. “Certainly, the benefit of having it as part of the medical record is that I don’t have to have all this infrastructure that I’m measuring, so interfaces, those types of things, troubleshooting between, ‘Okay, did this not work because data didn’t get from the medical record to this third-party tool?’ It’s all within the same application, which is Epic, and so it makes the administrative work for my team significantly less.”
Among the new tools Providence deployed are Epic’s inpatient and outpatient insights features, which summarize patient records for clinicians before appointments or shift changes. The health system also launched physician billing coding assistance and predictive denials capabilities aimed at reducing revenue cycle inefficiencies.
Another newly deployed feature, Epic’s SlicerDicer Sidekick, allows users to generate reports using plain-language prompts instead of complex database queries.
“If I wanted to write a report, I basically had to have a PhD to be able to figure out how to write that report,” Mr. Palis said. “Now you can type in layman’s terms saying, ‘Hey, I want to be able to see all my patients that are over 40 that might need to be due for a colonoscopy screening,’ and it will write that report.”
Providence’s AI deployment strategy is closely tied to its broader application rationalization efforts, Mr. Palis said. Embedding AI tools directly inside Epic reduces the need for clinicians to move between multiple platforms and helps operational teams avoid bringing in additional standalone technologies.
“It kind of stops any tools coming in from the outside, these point solutions, as you mentioned,” he said. “People focus less on these point solutions and focus more on what’s being rolled out because those are the problems they’re trying to get resolved.”
Mr. Palis said Providence still evaluates outside vendors when needed. The organization, for example, uses Nuance DAX for ambient listening rather than Epic’s offering. But Epic-native tools are typically the first place Providence looks when operational teams identify workflow problems.
“If it’s within Epic and it’s a need that’s identified by our operations, certainly that’s our first look,” he said.
Providence is also taking a measured approach to deployment. The organization tests tools in separate environments, validates them with clinicians and operational users and pilots them in select clinics or hospital units before broader rollout.
“We purposely go maybe slower than maybe some other organizations,” Mr. Palis said. “We want to make sure that we’re not just rolling out AI tools to roll out AI tools. We’re rolling them out to be effective tools.”
Early feedback has been positive, according to Mr. Palis, particularly around tools that summarize patient information and reduce administrative burden.
“We haven’t seen any hallucinations, we haven’t seen any negative feedback,” he said. “They really like it. It’s really being seen as beneficial and helping them save time and get more face-to-face patient care, as opposed to sitting behind a screen.”
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