Prioritizing Patient Experiences And Driving Topline Growth In Healthcare With Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service

As the healthcare sector faces increasing burnout and a potential workforce shortage, organizations are looking for ways to fill staffing gaps while improving patient care. Forrester research highlights key differentiators in modern and future-fit healthcare organizations that set them up for success in the current landscape.¹ The report found that future-fit organizations support their employees with productivity-driving technology that enables them to streamline workflows and offset administrative tasks. By creating technology-enabled and modern workforces, these organizations were able to ensure patients were engaged in their care and would continue coming back for future appointments.

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to interview 20 representatives at 16 organizations and conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study to better understand the benefits associated with the investment in Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.²

In the full TEI study, Forrester found that an industry-agnostic composite organization would see increased engagement with customers or patients that results in improved retention and customer growth. The composite also experiences employee labor savings from both AI-powered content generation and improved contact center performance. In total, the composite experiences risk-adjusted financial benefits ranging between $45.9 million and $197.4 million over three years.

This abstract will focus on the healthcare sector’s use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and its value to their organizations.

As part of the broader TEI study, Forrester interviewed four representatives of two healthcare organizations with experience using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service:

• A digital strategist, a data and analytics lead, and a business analyst at a hospital located in APAC with $1 billion in annual revenue and 33,000 employees.
• A VP of platform engineering at an insurance organization in the Americas with $31 billion in annual revenue and 15,000 employees.

Prior to engaging with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the interviewees’ organizations relied on manual processes for a variety of common tasks, such as medical record documentation, billing, insurance claims processing, and patient communication. The labor-intensive tasks led to process inefficiencies and increased administrative expenses. Ultimately, both challenges inhibited the organizations from delivering best-in-class patient service, which negatively impacted patient experience.

Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service facilitates custom AI application development with Microsoft’s underlying AI infrastructure. This strategy enables AI to impact as many applications, business processes, and employees as possible while still being accessible and manageable for AI developers.

*For the composite organization presented in the full TEI study

INVESTMENT DRIVERS For Healthcare Organizations

The interviewees’ organizations adopted Azure OpenAI Service to ameliorate various challenges in their legacy environments, including:

• Operational inefficiencies. Manual processes delayed service timelines and resulted in critical resources spending time on administrative tasks rather than their core competencies. The VP of platform engineering at the insurance company cited patient communications as a primary example of operational inefficiencies, wherein healthcare providers were responsible for manually summarizing long calls line by line.  
• High administrative costs. Manual processes not only distracted healthcare providers and administrative staff from their primary responsibilities, but they also resulted in high administrative costs. Increasing administrative costs can result in higher fees for patients, longer wait times, and more complicated care and billing processes.
• Extensive market competition. Without proper technology to support complex healthcare environments, the interviewees’ organizations often resorted to applying more internal employees to the problem, which further compounded both the operational inefficiencies that directly impacted service levels. This was a challenge for healthcare organizations in which patient experiences were the primary differentiators in a highly competitive market.

Key RESULTS For Healthcare Organizations

The results of the investment for the interviewees' organizations include:

Topline growth. Healthcare organizations cited examples of how their use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service solutions provided the level of patient service that drove differentiation in the market.

• Market differentiation. Azure OpenAI Service enabled interviewees’ organizations to streamline previously manual processes and provide best-in-class patient experiences. The VP of platform engineering at the insurance company described how process improvements were considered a market differentiator and helped to win more business: “[We do] business with various state [government agencies]. As we try to enter new states, we go through an RFP process. These efficiency gains [from using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service] will be part of our pitch and competitive advantage, showing how we are doing something different than competitors.”

The interviewees’ organizations also hoped to see an impact more widely in how patients interacted with healthcare providers. The digital strategy professional at the hospital said: “For a health issue where 80% to 90% of cases are actually normal, having to wait days or even a week later to get the result can be frustrating. With AI, you can just wait an hour, go get coffee, and the result is ready. There is no need to make another appointment.” Interviewees said easing patient frustrations encourages better provider and patient relationships that can result in patients being more likely to stick with their existing healthcare providers. 

Operational efficiencies. Azure OpenAI Service expedited internal processes and automated certain tasks to provide operational efficiencies in a few different areas including customer support and marketing.

• Patient support efficiencies. Interviewees’ organizations leveraged solutions built on Azure OpenAI Service to replace manual processes in call centers, streamlining patient support. With these solutions, call center agents were able to create AI-powered knowledge bases to quickly give patients the information they needed, which saved time for both the agents and the patients. Interviewees also reported using Azure OpenAI Service to summarize calls, minimizing back and forth between patients and support teams. The VP of platform engineering at the insurance company elaborated on the impact: “AI is summarizing longer calls that last 15 minutes or more in mere seconds. The call center team can now spend time on other activities in different areas of the business.”

Additionally, the digital strategy professional at the hospital outlined how in the long term, their organization hopes to create an Azure OpenAI Service-based chatbot that would allow patients to access their medical information independently and securely. The interviewee stated: “There is a huge opportunity to transform customer support [with AI]. The goal is to have an OpenAI chatbot that has access to data from medical records and medications.” 

• Administrative efficiencies. The interviewees reported a variety of administrative processes that were streamlined with Azure OpenAI Service. The VP of platform engineering at the insurance company said Azure OpenAI Service helped their organization evaluate hundreds of pages of state contracts much faster than it could have previously, allowing it to absorb more of the content more quickly. The digital strategy professional at the hospital spoke more broadly about productivity impacts across healthcare processes, indicating that the time savings ranged from 30% to 80% depending on the complexity of the process in the prior state.

*For the composite organization presented in the full TEI study

Improved service delivery. Ultimately, refocusing organizational efforts on growth opportunities and providing operational efficiencies resulted in faster and better-quality service delivery.

• Expedited delivery timelines. Interviewees shared that before adopting Azure OpenAI Service, administrative tasks often led to overburdened staff and long patient wait times. The digital strategist at the hospital indicated that doctors spent 45% of their time on documentation. The interviewee said that with Azure OpenAI Service, their hospital drastically reduced administrative work and reallocated the time to patients and providing care. The interviewee added, “Azure OpenAI Service reduced time spent on producing medical records by 50% to 80% for doctors, depending on the complexity of the visit.”
• Improved patient satisfaction. Interviewees’ organizations streamlined key processes that directly improved patient experiences and increased customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. The VP of platform engineering at the insurance company highlighted how the process around submitting faxes to insurance providers and approvals to see specialists was shortened to minutes. Together with other initiatives, this helped to improve member satisfaction scores.

Appendix A: Endnotes