Across all industries, AI is becoming more and more widespread, and this includes the healthcare industry. There are many applications of AI in Healthcare, but one of the most exciting technologies is chatbots. Healthcare chatbots can benefit both patients and healthcare professionals, but in this article we’ll look at how they have the potential to, and already are transforming the patient journey in the healthcare industry.

What is a healthcare chatbot?

All chatbots are designed to interact with humans, usually via text, in order to answer questions, receive commands, and so on. A healthcare chatbot is simply a chatbot that has been designed to work specifically in a healthcare setting. For example, some healthcare chatbots can answer basic questions about drugs and symptoms, provide details about appointments, and more.

In essence, healthcare chatbots automate various functions that would otherwise need to be done by humans, making support more accessible to the people who need it.

How can AI enhance healthcare chatbots?

AI is getting increasingly advanced, and when deployed with healthcare chatbots have the power to make them more useful for patients. When powered by machine learning algorithms, chatbots gain adaptational capabilities, increasing their potential applications and usefulness to patients.

For example, a traditional chatbot may just be pre-programmed with fixed responses to certain prompts. The limitations of this kind of software are obvious, and this can lead to frustration from users. AI chatbots are able to use logic and complex algorithmics to respond convincingly to a far broader range of queries and types of language, meaning they are more useful to a greater number of people.

How can AI chatbots for healthcare transform the patient journey?

More accessible support

Probably the most transformative benefit of healthcare chatbots is their ability to make support significantly more accessible to patients. For instance, chatbots are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, helping patients receive personalized support at any time. Additionally, chatbots are generally unaffected by surges in demand, can offer support in multiple languages, and can be accessed from a range of platforms, meaning patients can always have the confidence they’ll get the support they need, whenever they need it.

More efficient interactions

Imagine how much faster the patient journey could be if receptionists, call center operatives, and telephone calls with medical professionals were not necessary for every single patient interaction. AI chatbots can help you to achieve this by cutting out the middleman and automating simple tasks that would usually require input from a person. 

Simpler appointment scheduling

Another transformative feature of some AI chatbots is their ability to be integrated with your organization’s existing systems. In the context of healthcare, this can mean linking chatbots with your appointment scheduling system. This can enable patients to simply talk to a chatbot to find out available times for appointments, schedule new appointments, and amend or cancel existing appointments, all within a matter of seconds.

Automated reminders and updates

Everyone forgets things sometimes, even when it relates to their healthcare. Whether they forget to attend an appointment, misremember advice given to them by a medical professional, or anything else, these can be at best an inconvenience and at worst a danger to their health. Chatbots can open up another line of communication with patients, automatically sending them personalized, targeted reminders for things like upcoming appointments and when to take medication.

Fewer patient visits

In-person hospital or clinic visits are a time-consuming and often unpleasant experience for many patients. While some of these visits are crucial, such as when patients need to be diagnosed or receive treatment, it remains a fact that many visits are unnecessary and may not even be related to a health issue. Healthcare chatbots make it easier to identify these cases by talking through issues with patients. If it’s a simple issue, the chatbot can provide a solution. If it’s a more complex issue, they can recommend and facilitate a visit.

Improved safety

The primary goal of any healthcare professional is to keep people healthy, but they need to be in contact with patients to do so. AI healthcare chatbots can help patients contact their healthcare professionals faster, escalating certain patients in priority and instantly linking them directly with their doctor or another professional who can help.

More resources to spend on patient care

By helping to make the patient journey more efficient, AI chatbots are able to free up the resources of healthcare organizations. This can have a direct impact on patient care, as these resources and efforts can be used to improve other parts of the patient journey such as by hiring more doctors, purchasing new equipment, and more.

Why choose Skil.AI chatbots?

Skil.AI healthcare chatbots leverage advanced AI and machine learning technology to offer targeted, personalized, and always-accessible support to patients. We pre-train all of our chatbots to work seamlessly with your organization, your existing IT systems, and your patients, with out-of-the-box functionality and zero code required from you.

To ensure exceptional accessibility, our chatbots for healthcare also feature automatic multi-language support, 24/7 coverage, and omni-channel integration across platforms such as SMS, WhatsApp, and email.

Speak to our team today to learn more about how Skil.AI healthcare chatbots could transform the patient journey for your organization through automation and efficiency.

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