We have been hearing a lot that chatbots will reduce human jobs in the coming years. We are already seeing this trend in industries like Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service among others but can Chatbots replace Doctors and Nurses in Healthcare? The answer is ‘Very Unlikely’ given the fact that each person is unique in health and lifestyle and a simple mistake in medical treatment can be dangerous to human life.
Yet, chatbots have become a trust-worthy virtual assistant who can handle the helpdesk and administrative tasks to save time and cost while improving the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services. Chatbots have the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by offering 24/7 helpdesk support and personalized experience to patients which is the major challenge for healthcare providers. Chatbots can help patients to get quick answers to their health-related questions among many other use cases.
Here are some of the use cases of Chatbots in the healthcare industry which can improve the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services:
Scheduling Doctor’s Appointment:
Who has not experienced long waits on the phone to schedule an appointment with a doctor but what if we can schedule the appointment over text/messaging apps without interacting with a human? Yes, Chatbots can ease the business process and give a personalized experience to patients while scheduling an appointment. They can also send reminders about the appointment to the patients.
24/7 Support to Patients:
This is something we miss in the current healthcare system. Chatbots never sleep and they can provide 24/7 support to patients. Chatbots can answer simple and frequently asked questions (FAQs) anytime. It may not offer a diagnosis but can monitor the health status and notify a Nurse immediately if the parameters are out of control.
Medication Reminders to Patients:
Patients often forget to take medications and nutrition supplements as prescribed and it can risk their health. This is where Chatbots can be very helpful to send medication reminders at a prescribed time to take the drugs. Chatbots can also send reminders for re-prescription of medicines, routine checkups, and other health-related
Billing and Registration:
An intelligent Chatbot can take care of billing, inventory, and insurance claims management through integration with backend systems to generate the invoices for the payments. Health Insurance providers can deploy a bot to answer questions related to insurance coverage, claims, and procedures.
Paperless System:
Chatbots can be integrated with EHR/EMR systems to create and maintain the medical data of the patients. These documents can be accessed by the patient or the doctor whenever there is a need.
Chatbots offer the great user experience to the users but the key is to develop and train the Chatbot to communicate accurately. As the advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) progresses, these chatbots will be more knowledgeable and offer a more human experience in the future.